We went to see the Thiepval Memorial which is located near Thiepval France. The memorial commemorates the missing British and South African soldiers who died in the Battle of the Somme during the First World War.

The memorial was a large arched monument that was quite impressive.

The monument was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and was built between 1928 and 1932. It is the largest Commonwealth Memorial to the Missing in the world.

Each the stone columns are inscribed with the names of missing soldiers during the Battle of Somme. There are 72,246 officers and soldiers names engraved on the columns.

We read some of the names engraved on the wall and came across a few names which had a poppy beside them. When a soldier’s remains were recovered that was previously listed as missing a poppy is attached beside their name on the monument.

Behind the monument is the Thiepval Anglo-French Cemetery.  The Thiepval Memorial also serves as an Anglo-French battle memorial.

We walked through the cemetery looking at some of the graves of the soldiers.  What we found very sad was the number of gravestones of unknown soldiers.

There were two different types of gravestones. One was rectangular and were for the British and the other one was a stone cross for the French. The British gravestones were simply marked with “A Soldier of the Great War/ Known unto God”. The French Cross gravestones were marked with “Inconnu”  which means “unknown”

It was a moving experience seeing the monument and the number of names listed as missing.

“Au revoir et passe une bonne journée”