Thiepval - November 11th 2008:

The 11th November 2008 was the 90th Anniversary of the Armistice and to mark the occasion Colin and myself travelled to Thiepval to attend the Remembrance Service there. Click on the pictures below for a larger image ( will open in a new window).
Inside the visitor centre. The Thiepval Memorial on an overcast and cold November 11th morning. Colin and myself.
Close up views of the memorial and the names craved into the panels that surround the base of the memorial. The sheer size of the memorial - the largest war memorial in the world - can only really be appreciated by being there. However, you can get some idea of the scale from these photographs.
The ceremony was conducted by the British Legion with the Mayor of Thiepval.
To mark the end of the two minute silence, a RAF Hercules aircraft flew overhead.
     
Colin lays a cross of red poppies in remembrance of Robert Harry Barnes, who was killed on the Somme in 1917 and whose name is inscribed on the Thiepval Memorial.
There is a small cemetery behind the Thiepval Memorial. It contains the graves, both named and unnamed of French, British and Commonwealth soldiers. The band is that of the Hampshire Constabulary.
 
The grave markers of unknown 'inconnu' French soldiers and a British soldier, known only by the regimental markings on his uniform.
The gravestones of British soldiers of all ages (some as young as seventeen) and all regiments.
Kings Royal Rifles Royal West Kent Royal Fusiliers
A J Robinson Aged 17   Royal Berkshire
East Surreys Somme 1916 Albert
The Thiepval Memorial is the largest of the Commonwealth Graves Commission's memorials to the missing, standing over 45 metres high it is visible from all around the surrounding countryside.