Passchendaele 1917: The story of the fallen and Tyne Cot Cemetery

[Andrew P]

Just picked up a copy of this book and it looks very impressive. Can't wait to read it.

[Tom Morgan]

Considering that the book was only released in July of this year, it's remarkable that the publishers sold out and had to quickly print some more.

Tom

[Rosie55]

Eighteen months ago, when I was visiting Poperinge, I picked up the leaflet issued by the Passchendaele Project asking people to submit details and photographs of relatives killed in the Battleof Passchendaele. It seemed that, as the last survivors of that war were passing on, (as were most of their family members), local people in Passchendaele wanted the real people behind those names on the gravestones and memorials to be recorded and remembered.

We visited Zonnebeke the following day and I left details of my great-uncle, together with the poor quality photograph which is the only image I have of him and some information about his background. Now, he, like so many others, is recorded in this wonderful book - hundreds of those names are revealed as real people with families, jobs, homes.

Thank you to Jan and everyone else involved in this very personal achievement - it means a great deal to me that a single name on Panel 1 at Tyne Cot, a Royal Marine with no known grave, is now revealed and recorded as a humble but loved working man, no longer just a name.

I shall treasure my copy.

And such is the power of serendipity, my 20 year old son is studying Garden design at University and is working on his final year dissertation on how to create atmosphere in gardens. Having visited the Battlefields with his school several years ago, he had been struck then by and remembered the contrast in the atmospheres of the CWGC cemeteries and Langemark. When we visited Passchendaele for the 90th Anniversary Commemorations at Varlet Farm last week, he was able to visit Tyne Cot, Poelcapelle, Langemark and also French and Belgian cemeteries to consider how each was laid out, how architecture and planting was used. And, of course, the information so carefully gathered together in this book, about the design, the thinking behind the laying out of Tyne Cot and the planting, is exactly the sort of thing he needs to know.

Which makes this book a winner twice over with this family!

[dugout]

Jan,

What is your actual occupation, now that you are not longer a staff member of the Passchendaele Archives? Do you work in an other memorial or archive?

[greatspywar]

Jan,

What is your actual occupation, now that you are not longer a staff member of the Passchendaele Archives? Do you work in an other memorial or archive?

After being absent for quite a while, I have only recently logged in on the Forum again. I have changed my name to greatspywar instead of the familiar Passchendaele Archives.

I am presently working with the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History on a Cold War project at Kemmel (not far from Ypres).

All the best,

Jan