Wednesday 14 January 2015

Remembering Uncle Donald

This is another catch up sort of blog...one of those I’ve been intending to get around to.

After our 6 months ( with a break back in England for hospital visits and Le Tour’s Yorkshire depart ) in Caunes, we drove back via some WW1 war graves.


2nd Lieutenant Donald Barten, Royal Fusiliers.
We have often intended to but somehow flying south has seemed a better option than driving, or the motorway exit we needed was closed, or time was just running out. Anyway, this time, we made it.
Our main aim was to find Mark’s great uncle Donald’s memorial. We knew there was no grave for him. He was involved in the Battle of Cambrai, and his body was never recovered or never identified amongst the thousands who died there in  November and December 1917.

We found it easily, on the edge of the village of Louverval.


It was a grey droukit sort of day. The rain was fine, and drenching, the clouds loomed and we both felt fairly subdued as we parked the car just next to the Cambrai Memorial.
It is not one of the huge Lutyens designed memorials, and  is not surrounded by hundreds of rows of symmetrical graves which remind you of the outrageous number of dead young men lie beneath the ground in this part of France.


It was small, elegant, beautifully maintained, sombre and incredibly emotional.
We were the only people there. However, messages written in a book at the entrance indicated that people had visited that day, and the day before. When we finally drove away, we saw another car draw up, and clearly other people were visiting after us.



We found Uncle Donald’s name on the wall. We left his picture and an entry in the visitors’ book to mark our thoughts, and we wandered among the few surrounding graves in the , by now, pouring rain. 


Donald Barten was a Second Lieutenant in the 8th Royal Fusiliers when he was reported missing on 30th November 1917. He was 28. His body was never recovered and a year later his mother was informed that he had probably died on the day that he was reported missing.


An exert from the war diary, indicating that Donald Barten, among others, was missing.
He had served in France in 1914, in Egypt in 1915. and back to France in 1916.


Uncle Donald, on leave, back at home in August 1917.
From the memorial site, all you could see were miles of flat, agricultural land. It was easy to imagine what had happened in these fields, based on all the films we’ve all seen, books we’ve all read, and poetry we all know. However, the sombre dignity of the place still took us by surprise.
We drove through some of the villages nearby, hardly architecturally changed in the last 100 years. We stopped at a few other small cemeteries and memorials. We knew about the big cemeteries, and the Lutyen’s Somme Memorial, with over 70,000 names of unidentified dead honoured...but somehow, these small spaces, littering the farmers’ fields, clearly making turning tractors more difficult, and needing pathways and roads across fields for visitors like us, were just incredibly poignant.




I had just read “Empires of the Dead” by David Crane, which is about the man who is largely responsible for the building of the British and Commonwealth war cemeteries.

 Fabian Ware had been a volunteer ambulance commander in France in the early years of the Great War, and was horrified by the way the war dead were left on battlefields, or unceremoniously buried where they fell, in 1914. He began to record the identity and position of graves and was responsible for the establishment of a Graves registration Commission. His work, in getting politicians, the army, writers and architects together finally meant that people were able to honour and commemorate the war dead.



It is an interesting read, but really brought to life by our visit to Cambrai.

( Thanks to Julian Barnard's web site, commemorating Uncle Donald's life)  http://www.julianbarnard.co.uk/1Donald_Barten/Barten-Cambrai-.htm )

18 comments:

  1. Thank you for posting this Janice. I feel a little ashamed that you know more about my family's history than I do! We had always known about "Uncle Donald who died in the war" but as a child it didn't really mean much to me. I hardly remember Gran (Dora) talking about her younger brother. I'm sure Julian would love to read this, and Christine - I'll send the link to her.I love the family photo of Donald on leave shortly before he died...... you'll have to remind me who the children are. Thanks again x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Have you looked at Julian's web pages about Donald ? he includes lots more information and some great photos... Have a great trip Hannah... xxx

      Delete
  2. We made a similar trip a few years back. I surprised myself by just how moved I felt at the sight of the memorials and graves.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too... the sombre weather added to it as well.

      Delete
  3. A few years ago, my husband and I visited the grave of his grandfather who was killed in 1916. It was a very moving experience and the cemetery, in Boulogne was very peaceful and sad. It brought home to me the reality of the person and how his death affected his family down through the generations. This is a lovely post, Janice...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it is incredibly moving...but somehow very dignified as well.

      Delete
  4. A very special post, and a special trip, Janice. The memorial is very elegant, like a temple. I have blogged about a similar trip we did, re HB's two great-uncles, in Belgium. One is marked only on the Menin Gate memorial, the other has a grave in one of the war cemeteries. We were very impressed to find the Visitor books as we searched, with scant info from the internet. Thankfully we found them both, all in one day. The work of Fabian Ware is to be commended. So many families are doing this, particularly now in the centenary years. Beautiful post, Janice. xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We certainly felt that although we have meant to do this before, many times....it was important to do it in 2014.

      Delete
  5. I have been so moved by this, Janice. You truly honor not only Jay's Uncle Donald, but all whose lives were lost during WWI, and, in turn, their loved ones in this posting.
    I have found myself caught unawares at times, visiting memorials such as this one, of how emotional I can become. Well done, Janice, and I thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes, the emotion just creeps up....all so incredibly sad.

      Delete
  6. Dear Janice - it was very special that you made the poignant journey to visit and remember Mark's great uncle Donald, and so lovely that you left behind his photo and shared your thoughts for others to read and reflect on him too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure the CWGC, who do such a good job maintaining these sites, have to clear photos, poppies, flowers, poems, little notes away every day...but it was important for us to leave something....Apparently all photos and written pieces are kept in an archive......I hope they can digitise it so that it can be kept forever.

      Delete
  7. A poignant post - I'd like to find my great uncle's memorial too. Before I started doing family history I didn't know his story - just his name - and when I found him on the CWGC site I felt very emotional. Why on earth had nobody told me about my grandfather's dear brother?
    I suppose some people cope by burying painful memories.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is amazing how family stories can vanish within a couple of generations...maybe as we have learned that bottling things up isn't good for you, this wont happen in the future. I am horrified how many "family secrets" in my family have only emerged since I have started looking into our collective past.

      Delete
  8. A beautiful post, Janice. I will never forget our visit to Villers Bretonneux last year and especially how quiet 6000 people could be, waiting for the dawn service to start. It really shook me up that so many young men died on both sides.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember reading about your visit last year...and thought about you and Bruce, when we were at Louverval.

      Delete
  9. Your posts always hook me in to the story you are telling with your brilliant photographic recordings.

    ReplyDelete
  10. A very poignant post, Janice. I haven't yet visited any of the WW1 cemeteries or memorials, but plan to do so with one of my sisters in February next year to mark the centenary of my Great-Uncle Walter's death on the Somme. He is one of those commemorated on the Menin Gate. But I had the same reaction as you and Mark when visiting some of the small WW2 cemeteries in Normandy some years ago. There is something so touchingly intimate and personal about them, which contrasts strongly with the overwhelming sadness and almost horror of the huge cemetaries with their thousands of graves.

    ReplyDelete