Pilgrimages

[linden]

I have been reading posts about visits to the battlefields and cemeteries in the 1920's . Also, questions about the Visitors' Books .

So yesterday I looked at "Silent Cities" and the article about pilgrimages . I was really surprised to discover that there were so many visitors .

I googled "St Barnabas Society" and Rev M Mullineaux , but there doesn't seem to be any information online .

I have become interested in the travel organisations because I have a "lost" ancestor who may have made this pilgrimage and then died in France during the journey .

How many of you know that your family visited their lost relatives ? It does look as though there must have been a lot of them .

Do any of you know anything about the tour companies ?

Does anyone know how I can find out if my ancestor did die and is buried in France ?

Regards,

Linden

[ianw]

There was considerable travel organised by local pals groups - such as the Leeds trip covered recently in a thread and also mass pilgrimages such as the one organised by the British Legion in 1928 - I am fortunate enough to have a personal diary , pictures and ephemera gathered by a pilgrim on this pilgrimage. An interesting official book about this one was also issued.

I have a modern book that covers pilgrimages in a bit of detail and will post title/author when I get home.

A fascinating topic.

[linden]

Thanks Ian.

When my cousin and I visited our great uncle's grave this summer we thought we must have been the first family members , because it would have been so difficult to travel straight after the first world war . In the past couple of days I've begun to realise how wrong we were .

I'm looking forward to getting a sense of how it must have been .

Regards,

Linden

[Max Poilu]

You can see a leaflet advertising tours by Thomas Cook in 1923 in this topic below:

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...st&p=771938

There were tours long before this date of course, perhaps while the war was still on...

[Greenwoodman]

The book "Battlefield Tourism: Pilgrimage and the Commemoration of the Great War in Britain, Australia and Canada, 1919-1939" by David W. Lloyd is a good in-depth look at this subject. Published by Berg in 1998, paperback 251pp ISBN 1 85973 179 1.

[ianw]

Yes, the book by David W Lloyd is the one I have . Very good and thought provoking.

[Andrew P]

'A Distant Grief' by Bart Ziino also touches on the post war pilgrimages

[linden]

Thank you . I shall order both the books - they sound as though they are just what I'm looking for .

[NigelS]

Although the Michelin Guides to the Battlefieds series of the early twenties were dedicated to the members of their staff lost during the war they must have been responding to a demand from people who wanted to organise their own pilgrimages. They make interesting reading - at least going by the reproduction of the one I have for Ypres - having suggested tours with descriptions, maps, and many before and after photographs. Looking at DingleRoad's brilliant pictures ( http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...tly+photographs ) I wondered whether his ancestors may have followed some of the suggested routes

NigelS

[linden]

I've just finished the David W Lloyd book . It was fascinating , and some of the stories were startling - Henry Williamson's article about the woman who married the German veteran who had killed her fiance . Thank you for the recommendation .

Linden

[paul guthrie]

Try Thirteen Years After by Will Bird, a terrific writer who also wrote Ghosts Have Warm Hands, on of the very best accounts.

[Charles Fair]

An account by my grandfather in 1920 is on the internet here:Old Haunts Revisited

The first Michelin Guide - to the battlefield of the Ourcq - was published in 1917. The others were mostly published in the 1919-1921 period in French. Some of the most popular were later revised and expanded e.g. the Verdun volume which was reissued in c. 1926.

[ianw]

Thanks for posting that link, Charles. Fascinating. These early visits must have been extraordinary and pretty harrowing - particularly for your Grandfather those graves at High Wood - not like they are today rather softened and dignified - but so raw in 1920.

[Aaron Pegram]

'A Distant Grief' by Bart Ziino also touches on the post war pilgrimages

As does Bruce Scates, 'Return to Gallipoli', CUP, 2006.

A.