Burghclere

No orchids today. Instead I made a long anticipated trip to Burghclere in Hampshire to visit the Sandham Memorial Chapel and its astonishing paintings by Stanley Spencer. This is his monument to the 'forgotten dead' of the First World War, a monumental work based on his experiences as a medical orderly first in a military hospital in Bristol and later in Macedonia. The paintings took five years to complete and the chapel is dedicated to Harry Sandham who died from malaria contracted during his service in Salonika. Harry Sandham was the brother of Mary Behrend who, with her husband, was Spencer's patron. Photography is not permitted inside the chapel but you can see the murals here. My blip is of poppies that I passed on the way.