History Trip to World War 1 Battlefields

“At the going down of the sun and in the morning we did remember them.” Laurence Binyon

On the 11th February 2023, 4 staff and 37 students took up the King’s shilling and set off for the battlefields of the First World War. After arriving at Poppies 1 hotel in the evening, kit bags were unpacked and staff and students ventured out for a meal and stroll around Ypres, taking in the cloth hall, that was destroyed by the Germans during the war but between 1933 and 1967, meticulously reconstructed to its pre-war condition.

The following day the Archbishop Beck PALS battalion travelled around the Ypres saliant, taking in the Hill 60, the trenches of sanctuary wood and Essex farm cemetery. Here, students learnt of the work of John McCrae, a medical officer during the war. He treated the wounded during the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, from a hastily dug 8-by-8-foot (2.4m × 2.4m) bunker. From here he was also inspired to write the poem “In Flanders Fields”. Students also paid their respects at the grave of Valentine Joseph Studwick, one of the youngest casualties of the war. In the evening, students participated in the Menin Gate ceremony, laying a wreath on behalf of the college to commemorate all those involved.

After an emotional day, a trip to the chocolate shop was just what was needed!

On Monday morning the battalion visited Tynecot cemetery, the largest Commonwealth war grave cemetery. Students spent time visiting the graves and looking at the memorial to the names of 35, 000 servicemen who have no known graves. Several students found family names on the memorial to the Kings’ Regiment (Liverpool). After a coach trip into Arras, France, staff and students went to The Wellington tunnels. After going down 20 metres deep there was a guided tour of the tunnels from which the Allies launched an attack. Students saw what life was like for the thousands of soldiers who were stationed there before the attack on the 9th April 1917. The tunnel system could accommodate 20,000 men and were outfitted with running water, electric lights, kitchens, latrines, a light rail system and a fully equipped hospital. Once back in Ypres, it was time to pack up the kit bags and as a nod to those soldiers who played football on 25th December 1914, some of the Beck battalion watched the Merseyside Derby.

Early next morning we set off for home, the coach was filled with tired voices singing. I wonder what the British Tommie’s of the Great War would have made of Oasis lyrics?

“For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.