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WWI commemoration - Jersey
Sep. 10th, 2015 02:44 pmFor a small island, Jersey is awash with history, Neolithic to present day. Brought to the British crown by William the Conqueror, its strategic importance (and that of the Channel Islands) has meant it's been vulnerable to attack for many years and that's evident in the castles, forts, Martello towers and 1940s fortifications which abound. The islands were the only part of the UK under German occupation in WWII and bear those scars.
We were on holiday there in August and found a number of occasions for pausing to think. One of those was at the Howard Davis Park cemetery. We'd gone there to see a marching band in concert but I couldn't resist a visit to see the graves, albeit through a locked gate as we were a bit late to go in.
The cemetery is, I believe, the only one allowed to have wooden crosses rather than marble ones.
The park itself is named after Howard Leopold Davis, who was wounded on the first day of the battle of the Somme and died soon afterwards. His father was a friend of royalty and was himself missing presumed dead when he was a ship's boy, turning up at his own memorial service!
We were on holiday there in August and found a number of occasions for pausing to think. One of those was at the Howard Davis Park cemetery. We'd gone there to see a marching band in concert but I couldn't resist a visit to see the graves, albeit through a locked gate as we were a bit late to go in.
The cemetery is, I believe, the only one allowed to have wooden crosses rather than marble ones.
The park itself is named after Howard Leopold Davis, who was wounded on the first day of the battle of the Somme and died soon afterwards. His father was a friend of royalty and was himself missing presumed dead when he was a ship's boy, turning up at his own memorial service!
