Sarah Smith’s Story
Our story is quite simple; we are WW1 ‘enthusiasts’ I suppose you could say in the fact that we are very passionate about the topic and the fact that the men who fought for our liberty should be remembered, regardless of whether they lived or died.
We know that many of the men who are out there get no visitors either because there’s no-one left to mourn them, there’s no-one wanting to go, or there’s no one able to go. So, we decided that as they were men from our village, we would remember them.
Unfortunately as there’s so many men on the memorial in Conisbrough, we couldnt visit them all. Also, we couldn´t beyond doubt identify the graves for many of them. So, we picked out the ones where we could identify them which was generally the ones which had a bit of write up on the website. Many of them had a photograph.
We put together a little document with one man per page, and printed out everything we knew about them; everything that was written on their page on the website, their photo, and their grave reference. Then, when we got to Ypres first, and the Somme afterwards, we bought little poppy crosses and laid them at each grave, or as close to each inscription as we could get them, as several were inscribed on either the Menin Gate, Tyne Cot or Thiepval, having no known grave. We said a few words to each man and gave his grave a little pat, just to let him know we’ve not forgotten him and his efforts have been remembered.
On the cross, we wrote a little message – their name, number, regiment, date of deathor whatever else we knew, plus ‘From Sarah and Craig, Conisbrough’, and a little message; something like ‘We will remember them’, or ‘Lest we Forget’. You can see this on some of the
photographs, in particular H Hornsby who is laid at Bard Cottage in Ypres.
We also laid a poppy wreath under the Menin Gate during the Last Post in the name of the ‘men of Conisbrough’, who fought in the Great War, also mentioning my own Great Grandfather James Ewart Davies of Sheffield who fought (and survived).
I have also included in the folder some general photographs of the cemeteries where some of our men are laid to rest. I have many other photographs of other cemeteries also if you would like them for any reason. The cemeteries are beautifully well kept by members of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which is paid for out of our taxes – not many people know that and it may be something
interesting to include as it is the one part of my tax which I enjoy paying!
The only addition to make is that we also went to Conisbrough Cemetery and visited the CWGC graves there. On November 11 last year I handpainted ‘poppy stones’ and we laid them on each grave. I hoped that the stonesand paint would last longer and fare better through our winter than the wooden crosses.The saddest one in the cemeteryis the poor man who died on Armistice Day itself, November 11 1918.
We are all booked to return to Ypres again this August for 10 days, as well as in 2017 for the centenery of Paschendael, and 2018 for the centenery of Armistice Day itself, November 11 2018. I should mention that if anyone has any relatives’ graves in the Ypres region that they want photographs of, or memorials laying then “within reason” we will certainly consider any requests
Regards, Sarah Smith
sarahlouise_smith@hotmail.co.uk
