Trip Day 56 – E.H Ely – Lest we Forget
As I stick my head out of my window this morning I am meet with a brilliant red sunrise, the morning is cold and clear and hopefully the train strikes should be over. Today I am going to try to get to Longueval, this is a tiny little French village in the north of France located in the Somme. My Great Uncle is buried in the Deville Wood cemetery and I feel it would not be right coming all this way to France and not paying my respects.
The first part of my journey should be simple enough I just need to catch a train to Amiens, they are suppose to run every hour from Garde de Nord station, after 3 changes on the metro I arrive at the station only to find that several of my trains have been cancelled. I need to catch another train and then change 3 stops in to a train to Amiens. Due to the train cancellations this train is packed, standing room only, thankfully it is only a 30 min run to my stop. I find my train to Amiens but this to is delayed, welcome to the French train system.
Eventually we are on our way, it is a 1 hour journey through the rolling fields of northern France, the trees are all changing colour and I am meet with green, gold and red leaves, farmers are busy ploughing there fields for there winter crop.
Finally I arrive in Amiens, it is now time for the tricky part, how do I get to a small village 24 km north? Bus, hire a car, taxi, did I mention that no one speaks English this far north in France? I decide that my only option is a taxi, so I find the taxi rank and wait. After a short while of waiting in the queue my taxi arrives and with my partial French I manage to convey where I want to go. Gerard, my taxi driver, is a nice man in his early 50’s who can’t speak a word of English but is very happy to take me to Longueval and back, and I negotiate a price of 80 euros for the trip.
The trip to Longueval takes about 30 minutes, again the farmers are preparing there fields and as we journey on we start to pass war cemetery after war cemetery, all immaculately kept, with there rows and rows of white head stones. Longueval is basically a town built on a T intersection, and it is the cross road for numerous cemeteries as signs point in many direction for different ones.
Finally after a bit of looking we locate the sign to Deville Wood and travel the short drive to the cemetery. The moment of truth has arrived, so with my copy of the letter, sent to my great grand parents in 1923, I set off to find the head stone. After a short while I locate my great uncles grave, there etched in white stone is the name I have come to see, E.H Ely. He is located in the second last row on the right as you enter the cemetery, 5 headstones in from the road. It is now late afternoon, the clouds have come in and an icy breeze is blowing, as I stand at my Uncles grave and look out over the sea of headstones that lay before me, a feeling of sadness fills me, so many live cut short, all in the name of war, such a waste.
Lest We Forget.