WW1 Photo should be attached to below

[purdy]

This is the picture hope it helps he was burried at Duisans British Cemetry and served in the Northumberland Fusiliers
thanks Ann

[aghadowey]

Very interesting photograph but am wondering if it was 1918 in France. A few comments-
- man standing with top hat looks like an undertaker? also another top hat in foreground placed on ground.
- two ladies in the shelter look like they're in deep mourning (black veils, etc.)- nurses would have been in uniform.
-wreaths near grave- would a soldier buried 1918 in France have had wreaths?
-clergyman on left side of picture- would military chaplain not been in uniform?

The families of dead soldiers were often sent a photograph of the grave- sometimes with the original wooden cross and then later with the permanent marker.

[scrimnet]

Also if you look carefully behind the guard...There are civvies!

This looks and feels like a picture taken at home...The padre looks like a curate, but padres do wear a surplus over uniform...The shelter is not permanent, but built specifically for this event...

I also see no officer...

They are I reckon a Kitchener bn...

They have Lee Metford rifles...Not issued to regs, oh and the belts...from the 1914 leather

The spade is a civvy one, not a military one

The cross is too well made for a slap dash emergency one...

[LizzieW]

Ann - I don't know if you've been to Duisan's Cemetery, but in case you haven't here are a few photographs we took earlier this year.

Lizzie

[LizzieW]

And another two.  If you know the grave number you can sort of work out whereabouts the grave would be.  The rows are as per the plan and the graves are numbered from the outside of the rows inwards.

Lizzie

[LizzieW]

Should say those are pollarded trees at the back of the gravestones, not barbed wire which is what it looks like on the photograph.  The trees did look a bit strange when we were there, but now they should be in full leaf and look much better.

Lizzie

[scrimnet]

Lizzie...

Is the area as bare as it looks in your photos??

The pic we have at the start of the thread has an awful lot of trees...The CWGC cemeteries I have visited retained an awful lot of greenery...

I don't think that any remaining trees would have been subsequently removed...Doesn't appear to have happened elsewhere!

Ann...

Have you any other soldiers who died in the Great War?? I am still opined that this is at home because of the profusion of civvies (look hard they are there! Male (old boy) and female (behind the guard)....)

[LizzieW]

Ann

Yes the area is quite bare.  That part of France is fairly flat and mainly farmland.  The cemetery is flanked on the left hand side by what was probably a fairly quiet road originally, but on the left hand side, only a few hundred yards away there is now a dual carriageway with lorries and cars etc. roaring past.  We visited twice and both times were the only visitors.  There is no car park or anything, just a dusty area in front of the cemetery where a couple of cars could park and immediately to the left of the cemetery is a dirt track which was just about wide enough for a car.

The attached from Google Earth shows what I mean.  Not sure if I should post this, but I couldn't work out how to get a link to it.

Lizzie

[LizzieW]

Hi Ann

I've now found a link to the photograph, but don't know how to remove the one I've posted.  Anyway here's the link.

http://www.rootschat.com/links/03qg/   

Lizzie