YEAR 10 HISTORY TRIP TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR BATTLEFIELDS
31 Year 10 GCSE History students, Ms Hayward, Miss Orchard and Mr Weller spent the Bank Holiday weekend touring the battlefields of Ypres and the Somme.
At the Ypres salient we investigated a preserved trench system at Bayernwald and visited Essex Farm, an Advanced Dressing Station where casualties were first treated on their return from the front line. We visited a memorial to the first use of gas at Vancouver Corner and tried on gas masks. We attended the last post ceremony at Menin Gate (a ceremony that has taken place every night since 1927) and laid a wreath on behalf of the school.
At the Somme we toured sites from the terrible first day of the battle, in which the British army suffered nearly 60,000 casualties, the single worst day in its history. We enacted the movements of the 'Accrington Pals', visited the memorial at Newfoundland Park and were amazed by the size of the Lochnagar Crater, the largest single man-made explosion before the development of nuclear bombs. We paid homage to the missing dead at the beautiful and magnificent Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.
We visited many British cemeteries as well as a German and a French cemetery. Perhaps most poignant was the British Tyne Cot cemetery where many students found their surnames amongst the names on the walls of those lost but not found. In addition, students found the graves of relatives. Kris Wheeler visited the grave of his great uncle, Arthur Gleed of the Gloucester Regiment. Stephen Farrell visited the grave of Wilfred Chamberlain of the Gloucester Regiment, who died at the battle of Delville Wood aged 23 and James Lewis visited the grave of Archibald James Haddow who served in the Hampshire regiment as a stretcher bearer.
Throughout the three days we were guided by retired Major Tom Saunder MBE, an author and television presenter on twentieth century conflicts. The scale of sacrifice and terrible conditions the soldiers endured was touching and humbling. It was a visit that will remain with all of us forever.
"THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVER MORE"
We will publish photographs from the trip here.