the Mechanics Institute, Bradford.
The 2023 walking tour of the WW1 battlefields will be of interest to local historians and families from the West Riding.We pursue local stories of service in the war and welcome requests for visits. Our allies are not forgotten. In the past we’ve visited Indian, Canadian, New Zealand, South African and American Memorials; this year it’s the turn of the Australians!
We will also visit places connected with the poets such as Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, David Thomas, WN Hodgson and Roland Leighton (fiancé of Vera Brittain). There will be free time to explore Arras and Ypres with their wonderful restaurants in historic settings.
Of particular interest will be the ceremony at the Pals’ Memorial on the Somme*.(There will be an optional walk for non-participants.) This moving act of “Shared Remembrance”, organised by the villages of Hébuterne and Serre, commemorates French troops in 1915 and Bradford Pals in 1916 who fought over the same ground.
Early expressions of interest in this Battlefields Tour will be very welcome.
*Click here for an account of the dedication of the Memorial in 2016:
https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/17213572.memorial-bradford-pals-perished-somme/