A pedestal marker (sometimes called a Gallipoli marker) used to remember Pte Victor Cantrill, a Coventry man who served with the Canadian forces. Time and the elements had not been kind to the lead lettering used on his original memorial. 📍Coventry (Windmill Road) Cemetery 🇬🇧

Remembering Pte Frank Pemberton, who died of bronchitis on this day in 1918 while a POW in Germany. He voluntarily enlisted in January 1915 and served in France for three years before being captured in May 1918. 📍Terlincthun British Cemetery 🇫🇷

Sergeant Ronald Davies, of 166 Squadron, was onboard an aircraft detailed to attack Hanover. His aircraft developed engine trouble and turned to return to base, crashing as it was approaching to land, killing five of the crew. 📍Hinckley Cemetery 🇬🇧

Serjeant Jordan, a former policeman and reservist, went to France with the first expeditionary force in August 1914. He went through the retreat from Mons in early 1915 and, later that year, was awarded the Distinguished Conduct medal. 📍Ilfracombe (Holy Trinity) Churchyard🇬🇧

L/Cpl William Nash served with the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry and was lost on the battlefields of the Somme. He is officially listed on the Thiepval Memorial, and with no known grave, his parents chose to have his name on their headstone. 📍Polesworth (St Editha) Churchyard 🇬🇧

Sick Berth Steward George Trolley was mentioned in despatches by Commodore Tyrwhitt, following a very early naval engagement that took place off Heligoland on 28th August 1914. The Daily Express gave an exciting headline to the battle. 📍Coventry (St Paul’s) Cemetery 🇬🇧

Pte Benjamin Robins, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, was killed on this day in 1917. In his school days he played in the Elkington Street Council School football team that won the 1911-12 Aston Villa Cup; just 5 years later he was killed in Belgium. 📍Tyne Cot Cemetery Belgium 🇧🇪

“I’m alright, Mother, cheerio.” The words selected for the epitaph of 22-year-old Lt Harold Hill, who was killed in an attack on the Passchendaele Ridge. Severely wounded, he was carried to a dressing station at Zonnebeke. 📍Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood🇧🇪

It’s interesting to read an account Serjeant Harry Jago’s dad wrote after visiting his son’s grave in Bayeux in 1947. His words about the cemetery’s ‘glorious sight’ rang true when I visited in August, almost 80 years later. 📍Bayeux War Cemetery 🇫🇷

The South Wales Daily News reported that Pte Albert Warren, Royal Munster Fusiliers, succumbed to dysentery at Malta Hospital on this day in 1915. He left a widow and four children back at home in Cardiff. 📍Pieta Military Cemetery 🇲🇹

Jerzy de Jenko-Sokołowski was killed in a flying accident on this day in 1940. His aircraft, a Fairey Battle, crashed into woodland at Heath End near Checkendon during night flying practice. 📍Benson (St Helen) Churchyard Extension 🇬🇧

A special memorial headstone commemorating a WW1 Royal Engineer whose grave at St Brannock’s Road Cemetery, Ilfracombe, is no longer accessible. Spr Frederick Sharrard died in 1916 following his discharge from the army, after suffering from tuberculosis. 📍Heaton Punchardon 🇬🇧

Gunner Stanley Saville, Honourable Artillery Company, was one of two Rugby lads killed when a shell exploded in the doorway of a dugout they were sheltering in. An officer wrote that Stanley was a ‘limber gunner’ who knew his job ‘from A to Z’. 📍Bard Cottage Cemetery 🇧🇪

For over 100 years Cpl Edward Doyle lay buried as an unknown soldier of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. In 2024, thanks to research submitted to the CWGC, his grave was rededicated and a new headstone was installed. 📍Hooge Crater Cemetery 🇧🇪

Able Seaman Kenneth Davies was initially reported as missing after falling overboard on this day in 1944. His death was late confirmed in October. 📍Coventry (London Road) Cemetery 🇬🇧

Private Archie Deacon, Royal Army Medical Corps, was killed by a shell burst whilst he was tending to the wounded on the roadside. His name is listed on the war memorial in Nuneaton’s Riversley Park. 📍Ypres Reservoir Cemetery 🇧🇪

Pte Jabez Dewis, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, is remembered on a family headstone in Nuneaton. He was buried in Enzeli Military Cemetery, Iran, but sadly his grave has been lost, and his name is now recorded on the Tehran Memorial. 📍Nuneaton (Stockingford) Cemetery 🇬🇧

A commemorative Victoria Cross paving stone honouring Lieutenant John Barrett, Leicestershire Regiment, who was awarded his VC during an attack on Pontruet on this day in 1918. 📍Leamington Spa 🇬🇧

A gun from the SS Hornsund, which was torpedoed and sunk 2.5 miles southeast of the gun’s present day location in Scarborough. The only casualty was 61-year-old Greaser Michael McHale, who is commemorated by the CWGC on the Tower Hill Memorial. 📍Scarborough Harbour 🇬🇧

Guardsman Frederick Holt, 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, died of wounds on this day in 1918. Interestingly, the additional information on his CWGC record states he was a ‘champion billiard player’. 📍Terlincthun British Cemetery 🇫🇷

Boy 2nd Class Eric Midgley died of pneumonia and empyema in 1918. At the time of his death, he was on training ship HMS Powerful in Devonport. In September 1918, 22 boys from HMS Powerful died; most were likely Spanish flu casualties. 📍Scarborough (Manor Road) Cemetery🇬🇧

On this day in 1917, Private Herbert Morris, British West Indies Regiment, was executed for desertion. He was aged just 17. 📍Poperinghe New Military Cemetery 🇧🇪

Sergeant Cyril Henderson, an RAF observer, died of injuries sustained during an air raid in London. 📍Benson (St Helen) Churchyard Extension🇬🇧

AC2 Gerard Bruijne died after an infection set in following an inoculation. Previously he had been a chauffeur to Queen Wilhelmina. It was interesting to find a photo of Gerard and his original grave marker on the Oorlogsgravenstichting website. 📍Scarborough (Manor Road) Cemetery 🇬🇧

An autumnal photo taken a couple of years ago at the immaculate Cambridge American Cemetery. In the foreground is the headstone of Lt Col Harley Twedt, who was killed in an air accident on this day in 1943. 📍Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial 🇬🇧

A Stolpersteine memorial, one of several embedded in the pavement outside the National Holocaust Museum, Amsterdam, remembering Levi Denneboom, who in the space of five days in September 1942 was interned, deported, and murdered at Auschwitz.

Four men of the Australian Salvage Corps killed on this day in 1917. The service records of two of them indicate they were killed by shellfire. Their unit's role involved recovering equipment and materiel from the battlefields 📍Ramparts Cemetery, Lille Gate 🇧🇪

John Notley first enlisted in the Royal Marine Artillery in 1898, serving until 1906, when he transferred to the Royal Fleet Reserve. His service records show he then re-enlisted in August 1914 and was killed by hostile shellfire on this day in 1917. 📍Ypres Reservoir Cemetery🇧🇪

Private Hyman Herbert Farber, Durham Light Infantry, died at the Third Australian Casualty Clearing Station from shrapnel wounds he received to his left arm, neck, and side. He was aged just 19 years old. www.jewsfww.uk/hyman-herber... 📍Esquelbecq Military Cemetery 🇫🇷

Warrant Officer Class 1 George Wesley Munch, RCAF, was a pilot of a Wellington bomber that crashed in Devon after a wing broke off in flight. The five crewmen on board were killed. 📍Heanton Punchardon (St Augustine) Churchyard 🇬🇧

The 10th-11th September 1917 saw a mutiny occur within the 74th Coy. Egyptian Labour Corps following a dispute over their contract expiry date. Seven men were killed in the mutiny; it’s likely Labourer Awad Abdel Rehim was one of those killed. 📍Les Baraques Military Cemetery 🇫🇷

For over 100 years, L/Cpl Horace Wilfred Miller, Leicestershire Regiment, was listed amongst the missing on the Menin Gate. In 2022, his grave was identified and rededicated with a new headstone bearing his name. 📍Ypres Reservoir Cemetery 🇧🇪

Flight Lieutenant Foster was officer commanding No.88 Elementary Gliding School, ATC, when he was killed as a result of a glider accident. He had served as an RFC pilot in WW1 and is buried in the same cemetery as @CWGC founder Sir Fabian Ware. 📍Amberley Church Cemetery🇬🇧

Private Sydney Kirkham, Durham Light Infantry, was killed on this day in 1918. The 36-year-old was a native of Hinckley, Leicestershire. 📍Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery 🇧🇪

Frank Buggs served as a rifleman with the 1/16th (County of London) Battalion (Queen’s Westminster Rifles), under the alias Frank Bradley. He was killed in action aged 20 on the Somme and is buried amongst over 2,000 comrades. 📍Dantzig Alley British Cemetery 🇫🇷

Seaman Amir Ali was killed off the coast of Portugal when his ship, SS Manaar, was sunk by a U-boat. The ship was one of the first sunk during WW2 and is reported as the first merchant ship to open fire at an enemy submarine. 📍Lisbon (St George) British Cemetery 🇵🇹

Private John Mills, Army Service Corps, died of wounds on this day in 1917. His headstone, made of Portland stone, a limestone formed in the late-Jurassic period, features the outline of two fossils, most likely a type of brachiopod. 📍Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery 🇧🇪

A husband and wife killed together when an enemy raider dropped bombs on Torquay on 4th September 1942. The couple who had only been married three months were amongst 17 people killed in what was likely a hit-and-run attack. 📍Torquay Cemetery and Extension 🇬🇧

On Merchant Navy Day, I share a photograph from my recent trip to Normandy, where I came across a member of the Merchant Navy buried in a large CWGC Cemetery. The clipped corners of Azeour Ulla’s headstone indicate that his is a non-war grave. 📍Bayeux War Cemetery🇫🇷

Back from an amazing and jam-packed first visit to Normandy, which was full of beaches, battlefields, museums, monuments, cemeteries, bunkers, batteries, memorials, tanks, and a tapestry..!

Another early-WW1 casualty who was moved in the 1950s. Captain Bowden Smith, Royal Fusiliers, died of wounds received during the Battle of Mons. He previously took part in the Tibet Expedition of 1903-04 and was wounded at Gyantse. 📍Cement House Cemetery 🇧🇪

A row of headstones belonging to Polish airmen of 1586 (Polish Special Duties) Flight who were killed on an SOE drop to supply the Polish Home Army during the Warsaw Uprising. 📍Budapest War Cemetery 🇭🇺

Corporal Sandreich MM, The Rifle Brigade, was the son of Alexander and the late Marie Goldstein, of South Park Boul, Chicago, USA. His CWGC record also states he was born in Australia. 📍Perth Cemetery (China Wall) 🇧🇪

Captain Johnathan Knowles, Middlesex Regiment, was originally buried in Maisieres Communal Cemetery, France, but moved to Belgium in 1957. He previously served in the South African War and was one of the first officer battle casualties of WW1. 📍Cement House Cemetery 🇧🇪

Pilot Officer Lewis Bennett, RAF, was the wireless operator/air gunner on board a Wellington bomber shot down whilst on a raid to attack an oil refinery in Hungary. Beneath his name, his headstone records that he was from Mauritius. 📍Budapest War Cemetery 🇭🇺

Staff Nurse Nellie Spindler, Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Nursing Service, who was killed by shrapnel on this day in 1917. She is the only female buried in a large Belgian CWGC cemetery that contains over 10,000 casualties. 📍Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery 🇧🇪

In a local churchyard I noticed an inscription to a soldier killed and buried overseas. One evening last August, as dusk was setting in, I found his resting place in Belgium. 📍Nuneaton (Our Lady of the Angels) Roman Catholic Churchyard 🇬🇧 and Bard Cottage Cemetery 🇧🇪

Private Thomas William Hextall, Leicestershire Regiment, died of wounds in the UK on this day in 1916. His medal index card shows he had served in France from 29th July 1915. 📍Ansley (St Lawrence) Churchyard 🇬🇧

After enlisting in August 1914, George Dalton served at Gallipoli, landing at Suvla Bay, where he was wounded. He then joined the fray in Salonica and also served in Egypt. After being discharged in 1918, he almost lost a hand when shooting rats. 📍Brinklow Cemetery 🇬🇧

Lance Corporal Michael Goulding MM, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, died of wounds on this day in 1917. The award of his Military Medal was published in the London Gazette on 21st August 1917, 4 days after his death. 📍Brandhoek New Military Cemetery 🇧🇪