Tyne Cot and Beaumont Hamel

[peter monahan]

The first photo needs no explanation.  The secind is of a plaque at Beaumont Hamel commemorating all the Newfoundlanders who fell in the Great War and have no known graves.  

Edward W. Kendall, killed Oct 9, 1917, was 15 at the time of his death.  Sergeant Tommy Ricketts, also of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, was 15 years old when he joined up in 1916 and 17 and a half when he won the Victoria Cross in 1918, the youngest member of the Empire to win it in battle.

I saw 15+ battlefields and cemeteries in 6 days, and am still sorting out my reactions in my head, though how small the battlefields were is one indelible memory.  I will likely have more to say soon.