Dudley Fletcher Goodwin.16.06.1892 - 07.03.1917

The main goal of our visit to France was to visit the grave of my Great Uncle, Dudley Goodwin. My grandfather, Harry Thomas Goodwin wrote a letter to his mother on 11th March which I read out at Dudley's grave. He is buried at Cerisy-Gailly Military Cemetery. Apparently he was shot on 6th March (I am not sure where) and was moved to the Casualty Clearing Station at Cerisy where he was operated on, but to no avail. 

Later in the day we visited the Lochnagar Crater (too much to tell, you will have to look it up). 1 feature (see extra) that caught my eye is the "empty chair". Sculpted in 2016 it symbolises the void left in so many homes following the huge loss of life during the Great War. 

Then we visited the Thiepval Memorial. This names some 72,000 men who fell in the Somme sector up to 20.03.18 and who have no known grave. perhaps worth noting that the first day of the Somme battle - 1st July 2016 was the worst day in British military history with some 20,000 killed and more than 60,000 Commonwealth casualties - killed, wounded or missing. Humbling figures.