European leaders pay tribute at Commonwealth War Graves Commission sites

Today, the leaders of Britain, France and Belgium have toured Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries and memorials ahead of the hundredth anniversary of the Armistice.

The British Prime Minister and French President today paid tribute to the fallen of the First World War at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s iconic Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme, in France.

Theresa May and Emmanuel Macron laid wreaths under the commanding arches of the 45m tall war memorial in France, which bears the names of more than 72,000 men killed in the Somme area.

Almost 100 years to the day after the guns on the Western Front fell silent, the leaders stood among the graves of the 300 Commonwealth and 300 French soldiers who were laid to rest side by side by CWGC at the foot of the Thiepval Memorial, to symbolise the common sacrifice of the Allied nations.

They included the resting place of Rifleman Philip Ernest Stubbs who is buried at Thiepval and fought in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, the same regiment as Mrs May’s grandfather, Regimental Serjeant Major Tom Brasier.

The Commission’s Director General Victoria Wallace guided Mrs May and President Macron around the Thiepval Memorial, the largest CWGC memorial to the missing in the world. Interns from the Commonwealth War Graves Foundation, set up to further the educational work of the Commission, then recounted the stories of some of the Commonwealth and French men buried on the site, which has been carefully tended by CWGC in France since it was unveiled in 1932.

Theresa May and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel were earlier on Friday (9 November) given a tour of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s St Symphorien Military Cemetery, near Mons, Belgium, where the first and last British soldiers to die in combat on the Western Front are, by chance, buried metres apart.

Just two days before the 100^th anniversary of his death, Theresa May and Charles Michel both laid a wreath at the grave of Private George Ellison, the last British soldier to die in combat on the Western Front. Private Ellison was killed hours before the agreed ceasefire at 11am on 11 November 1918.

Directly opposite his grave, by pure chance, is the final resting place of Private John Parr who was killed on 21 August 1914, the first British soldier to die in combat on the Western Front. Both leaders also laid a wreath at his grave. Only a few metres of carefully trimmed lawn separate these men at St Symphorien, but more one million Commonwealth lives were lost around the world in the four years between their deaths.

Prime Minister Theresa May said: “Armistice gives each of us an opportunity to pause and reflect on the immense sacrifices that were made by so many a century ago. Each cemetery and memorial across the world is a unique and poignant reminder of the cost of the First World War, and a fitting place to observe a silence for those who died. I thank those who work year-round to maintain and preserve these hugely significant sites for the benefit of us all.”