The Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry are to join more than 25,000 people in northern France to mark the centenary of a defining World War One battle. The four-day battle of Vimy Ridge saw the deaths of 3,598 Canadian forces. Princes William and Harry will lay a pair of boots as part of a tribute to those killed near the city of Arras. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Francois Hollande are among the others attending. Vimy Ridge: Royals to commemorate defining WW1 battle - BBC News
My Granddad, William Walton Webb, was at Vimy with the 1st Canadian Division.. he survived the period from Feb 1915 to Nov 1918 with the CEF in Belgium and France before being demobbed in Feb 1919 - ultimately, he only made it to Dec 1943, while his daughter, Patricia, was serving with the ATS and his son, Denis, was with the Royal Navy.. William's buried in an unmarked common grave in Streatham
Apparently Paul Reed re-tweeted that Mark Hope has said it is absolute chaos in Arras today Marc Hope on Twitter
I was at Vimy too and can only concur. The ferrying off thousands of people by buses, having had to disembark from our coaches made it difficult to keep a tour group together. The return trip was therefore even more problematic. The TV screen in front of the vast crowd wasn't high enough so that as soon as the Guard of Honour appeared you couldn't see half the screen. Then when the official guests arrived the front rows stood up to take pictures and 80% of the people saw nothing. I sat with a couple of Canadians who were hoping their wives were recording the events back home so they could see what they had missed! Nevertheless a memorable weekend and an honour to be able to remember my great grandfather William Clements KIA 24.4.17 (no known grave)
I remember back in 1979/1980 while studying in France I was taken to Vimy by a family I had made friends with. I had just turned 21 at the time; my grandfather had spent his 21st birthday in captivity in May 1918, so to see an actual WW1 battlefield plus spend my own 21st birthday in France 62 years after he had done so only under very different circumstances made this visit even more relevant to me. Grandad was not at Vimy Ridge, but I took time to go to the Canadian War Memorial monument, whereupon I found the names of 17 soldiers with the same surname as me inscribed on one of the faces. I still remember the signposts warning visitors not to stray from the specified paths as to do so could have ended up in disaster with so many unexploded grenades, shells etc etc still lying undiscovered below the surface. Thank you to those Canadian soldiers who gave their lives to capture this ridge. RRTB
