On July the 29th a party of villagers symbolically left from Snettisham’s war memorial on a Leger coach to go out to 36 of the ‘fallen’ soldiers who’s names appear on it.

Over the next 5 days they travelled extensively across the Battlefields of France and Belgium conducting personal remembrance services at the final resting place of each man and learning about the battles and conditions they faced from their experienced tour guide (Mark Allen).

As with all the previous graveside services, the life story of the man was read along with a personal prayer to him, letters were laid ( a civic one and a personal one from a local schoolchild) and a wreath of Norfolk Lavender bound in a ‘Snettisham Torc’ was left – to symbolise ‘home’ coming to them.

The visits included one to one of the smallest war cemeteries cared for by the CWGC to visit Sidney Auker one of the UK’s very first casualties in the war and ended with a visit to Etaples the world’s largest military cemetery, with 12,000 graves to find and honour Thomas Martins.  Along the way members also visited the major memorials at Thiepval and the Menin Gate to honour the Snettisham men and all their comrades inscribed upon them.

Whilst all stories were moving, humbling, pride inducing and tragic in equal measure a particularly poignant moment came when the group stood in remembrance over the grave of Arthur Lincoln (lead image in this piece) recreating exactly the pilgrimage his widow and his mother did over 90 years ago to the very same spot….

‘We as a community have not forgotten Arthur’s or their sacrifice or the many, many similar stories they represent’

The trip was timed to return for the 100th Anniversary of ‘the big push’ marking 100 days to the Armistice – more on this in our next news update

With 3 remembrance services already completed these visits mean the project has already visited 39/45 of Snettisham’s WW1 fallen – with plans in place for the final 6.

The EDP reported the visits shortly after the groups’ return.