Cherwell School Trip
1st to 3rd July 1997
Battlefield Sites of The First World War
The History Department has just returned from a successful visit to First World War Battlefield sites in France and Belgium. In all 39 students and 5 staff went on the trip. Most were members of Year nine who studied the First World War during the spring term. A number of Year 12 students also came with us as one of their A Level topics involves a consideration of landscape as a source.
We arrived on 1 July at the town of Ypres which was almost entirely devastated between 1914 and 1918. Ypres’s most famous landmark is the Menin gate which is a memorial to Commonwealth soldiers who died in this region and have no known grave. There are almost 55,000 names carved on the memorial. Tom Rowland (who within five minutes had found the names of eleven soldiers who bear his surname) presented a floral tribute on behalf of the school.
The 2 July was spent in France in the area around the River Somme. This was the region where the Allies launched a disastrous counter-attack in 1916. Students were able to see the trenches for themselves and get a feel for the enormity of the event which occurred here. At Thiepval, Henrietta Upcott led a moment of silence. Her Great Grandfather had fought here in 1916. Perhaps most movingly of all Mary Sholl found an inscription to the memory of her Great Grandfather. She is the first member of her family ever to see this.
The final day (3 July) was spent back in the Ypres area. The group visited two huge cemeteries. The first was Tyne Cot Cemetery which is the largest commonwealth War Cemetery containing almost 12,000 graves. The silence which fell over the whole coach when this incredible site first came into view will be a lasting memory of mine. Our final destination was the German Military Cemetery at Langemarch. The German soldiers were buried in huge mass graves and the cemetery has a dark, sombre feel to it. Dan Harlos and John Hayes presented a tribute which was fitting as both have German relatives who fought here.
All the students and staff who went on the visit gained something from it. Many returned determined to find out more about their own family’s role in this devastating war. Each one of us now has a clearer understanding of what trench warfare involved and the huge sacrifices which were made by those who fought in it.
Produced by Rachel Share
Article by Chris Price
Photos by Ian Farrell and Kevin Heritage