Two headstones

 

Friday 8 August 2008 at Tyne Cot Cemetry in Belgium
So many unknown soldiers lying dead for their country and ideals

This was a day we made multiple trips back to a little village with a central roundabout and apart from the main road through, there were five other roads radiating off and we must've tried each one to see if Sue could recall where, in her mind's eye, this other cemetery was, that relates to N.Z. but, no, nothing looked right. Frank and Sue must've told us this was Passchendaele but it didn't register for me until 2017, when researching the death of Granny Mankelow's brother Herbert Lyford who died 4 October 2017 in one of the many battles of Passchendaele. Not finding this other cemetery and running out of time, we headed off for Menin Gate for the daily Last Post Ceremony.

This photo is time stamped as 7:06pm

While waiting for the ceremony to begin we wandered the shops and Barb found some Flanders Field poppies embedded in resin as earrings - which are worn each Anzac Day. It was quite moving to see the respect shown the fallen soldiers by the Belgium nation. As Frank said one time, when he introduced me to a chap he knew after we had seen a DC3 fly overhead, this guy is from the first generation not to have experienced war, and of being invaded. While I was filming the Last Post I could see my Panasonic camera flashing a low battery warning and I was hoping it would last to the end of the bugler's Last Post but ....