Trying To Find Scottish Family WW1 Graves in France
On the 11th of November 2018, which I remember vividly as being a bitterly cold day, I stood at the war memorial in the Scottish village my family lived in for generations as the names of the young men who gave their lives in the First World War were read out by the minister. Three of those young men listed were my family members and it was at the moment, that I decided that someday I would make the journey to France to see where they lived their last moments and where they were laid to rest.
This is part one of a series exploring the WW1 sites on the Western Front and I start my journey in Arras at the Arras war memorial. Over 100 years ago on the 9th of April, 1917 a huge army was assembled in the historic town of Arras in North East France, many of the soldiers were Scottish or Canadians with Scottish heritage. The proportion of Scottish soldiers involved was higher than in any other battle of World War 1.
Lasting approximately 5 weeks until May 16th, the Battle of Arras concluded in a stalemate, resulting in around 160,000 casualties for the British and 125,000 casualties for the Germans. An estimated 18,000 Scottish were killed during the Battle of Arras and it was during this battle of the Great War that two of my family members died. Join me as I try and find the war graves and memorials of my family members who died in France.
Thank you to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the German War Graves Commission for their assistance in the production of this film.
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WHO AM I?
If we haven't met before... Hi, I'm Ruth 👋 and I recently bought a campervan to travel my home country of Scotland after living overseas for 12 years. I’ve hardly seen anything or been anywhere in Scotland and now is the time to change that!
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00:00 - Battle of Arras
02:09 - Arras Memorial
09:09 - Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery
14:28 - MyHeritage
15:57 - Vimy Ridge
19:10 - Canadain Cemetery
22:16 - Notre Dame de Lorette
23:39 - Ring of Remembrance
28:13 - Neuville-St Vaast German War Cemetery
30:33 - Back at Vimy Ridge
35:14 - Point Du Jour Scottish Memorial