Have we found our "corner of a foreign field" ?
We were commission to create a film highlighting the terrible sacrifice on both sides in and around Ypres. This was to in some way explain the need for the main focus of the commission, to showcase a new facility created by our client to dispose of the thousands of unexploded chemical munitions found annually. View that film here.
During the trip, quite by chance, we came across the record of a great great (great) uncle and namesake listed on the Menin Gate memorial. This led to research of the details of his service and eventual death on 9th August 1917.
Unfortunately, his service records were lost during WW2 however we were able to find a record of the compensation paid to his mother, £9 7 shillings and sixpence, and a list of his personal effects. A very sad requiem for a lost son.
During a second film shoot in and around Ypres, we came across a grave in Bedford House Cemetery, the closest cemetery to his last known position on 9th August 1917, determined by reading various war diaries. So maybe, just maybe this is the final resting place of our family member.
We do know that several graves at Bedford House Cemetery were moved after the war to other cemeteries of which Aeroplane Cemetery was one. Indeed one of the five of our relative's comrades, Pvt A.G. Harris B Company also killed by shellfire the same day rests here.
Listing on the Menin Gate memorial indicates that the fallen soldier has no known grave. There are almost 55,000 of them here and many many more at Tyne Cot and elsewhere.
So of course there is no guarantee that S4252 L/Cpl David Orrells of the 3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade rests here at Bedford House, but we would like to think so. As far as we are concerned this is our corner of a foreign field and a very beautiful one it is
Lest we forget, rest in peace
David Orrells