Moving and poignant visit to battlefields

Three-day trip takes in war memorials of World War One

Earlier this month year 10 GCSE history students from Lady Lumley’s School set off on their annual battlefields experience to France and Belgium.

The three-day trip was a moving experience for the group as they visited the cemeteries and graves of fallen soldiers from World War One.

Sites visited included the Menin Gate memorial, Tyne Cot cemetery and the Pool of Peace which is the site of a crater that was created when the British army detonated a chain of mines. Since the war ended the crater has filled with water and has now become a lake.

The trip also included first-hand experience of life in the trenches with a visit to Hill 62 Sanctuary Wood museum, in Belgium, where the students were taken on a tour of a frontline British trench and were shown its key features and how soldiers experienced daily life.

Each of the students were given a local soldier to study prior to the trip which brought home the suffering and hardship endured in the Great War.

SUBMITTED Lady Lumley’s School students pictured on their visit to Hill 62 Sanctuary Wood museum, in Belgium.

SUBMITTED The trip included a moving vigil at the Menin Gate memorial.