大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with Brea and Ed Herron at the Newry Town Hall, and has been added to the site with their permission. The authors fully understand the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was David Reid, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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In the eighties. We went camping.
My father has no actual grave, though we know exactly where he was killed and with whom he was killed. When they went to rebury the bodies, his couldn鈥檛 be found. Not all of it, anyway.

Couldn鈥檛 be identified.

But in the 80s we went camping, and we decided, my mother was getting very old and we didn鈥檛 know anything at all. And discovered that his name is on a big memorial in Bayeux. Which nobody had ever told her about, and all the other widows had pictures of their husband鈥檚 grave, and she always wondered why she didn鈥檛 get one. But of course she wasn鈥檛 able to do anything about it, we investigated and found all this and took her over. Our children took turns going over each year, and found all this out. And then found about Ed鈥檚 father, after all that. He was in the same spot.

When we were starting this, there were no computers or anything. No internet, in a sense, and everything had to be done by letter. And we knew very very little. But I had some basic facts. One that he had been killed at a place called Bon-Rapeux, a little crossroads, and the man who buried him had since married a Newry girl so was in Newry, and knew where he buried him. But nobody knew where Le Bon-Rapeux was.

When I was a child I鈥檇 be down the town with my mother, and she鈥檇 say to me 鈥渢here鈥檚 the postman buried your father鈥�. Because he wasn鈥檛 killed, you see, and he鈥檚 only dead a few years ago. But he had buried him, and told my mother he buried him on Sunday morning. The chaplain had written to my mother, and we have the letters, they鈥檙e in the Newry book. The chaplain said he buried him at Bon-Rapeux in the orchard, and we were able to go and find the people whose house he was killed in, and the cornfield and all where he was buried, exactly there.

Same as the picture of 1944. I arrived in this place, and met of all people the first person, the Mayor, and asked of him did he know where that triangular orchard was? Right there, right where it was.

It was exactly the same. The walls from the original 1944 photo were still there. More tumbled down, but quite identifiable.

And bullets in practically every bit of stone you lifted. We took a bag of them home. They fought there for about 6 weeks, I think. And that鈥檚 probably why he couldn鈥檛 be identified. But eventually after all this as well we met the postman, Mr Howells, down Hill St one day and said 鈥淐ould you tell us something? We don鈥檛 know anything, you鈥檙e the only one. Who was he killed with?鈥� so he said 鈥渉e was killed with a fellow named Smith鈥�.

Before that, he had no known grave. We knew that, but we insisted on looking at every gravestone in every cemetery. It took days and days. I happened to meet a man who was in charge of one of the cemeteries, and he said that many of the Welsh soldiers had been buried in this certain graveyard, this military cemetery. So we went out there. And we searched again every headstone, knowing we couldn鈥檛 find it but just searching it anyway. And I came across one that said, was the Regiment鈥檚 name on it? 鈥淜nown onto God鈥�. 21st of July 1944. That was the date he was killed, and I thought 鈥淚鈥檝e found it鈥�. And I had no proof, of course, I鈥檇 found it. And as I walked along a bit further I found another identical one, same date, and I was annoyed.

And both of them had Welsh soldiers killed right beside them.

On our first trip I took Brea鈥檚 mother, sent her through the graveyard on her own and said 鈥渢here are 2 stones same date as your husband was killed鈥�, and she never saw the other one at all. She went straight to that one. Same one as I did. I had 2 of our daughters at that time, and I hid each person round the trees and parks, sent each person in on their own, and each of them found on their own the same one, and didn鈥檛 see the other one. So we repeated that. We did it with Brea the next year.

You just looked at it and thought 鈥渢his is the grave鈥�. And then the postman, and several years later I said 鈥渨ho was he killed with鈥�, he said 鈥淪hivers and Smith鈥�. And that was the 2 men by the grave, the one we had chosen.

They were buried beside him, one on each side of him.

And we took my sister, only about 5 years ago. She鈥檇 never been, she didn鈥檛 know names or anything. And we asked her to go and look. She found the 2 sets of graves, and she stopped at this one and burst into tears. And she knew nothing about Shivers and Smith. So we sort of have adopted that.

On my very very first visit, I remember that Brea鈥檚 mother had stopped there and burst into tears, the same one. We sort of have adopted that.

We met the people, the man and the wife, who were just married at the time and been evacuated. And they were living there, in the same house. Really lovely. And the son saved a helmet for us. One year we went over, and he had dug up this helmet out of the field, and we have it in the house now. A British helmet, and it鈥檚 really fascinating stuff.

The battle where he was killed, 115 people were killed in it, including 3 officers, in that 1 skirmish.
[6-wk period?]
yes. The first big engagement. Some of the people had been killed on the way, but this was the first major battle, that 115 people and 3 officers were killed at this Bon-Rapeaux place. So it鈥檚 all there, I know exactly where he was.

It鈥檚 a wee slope, if you walk up it you can feel yourself gently going up. The British and the Canadians got up it. You just drive past it, you wouldn鈥檛 see it. There鈥檚 no hill there.

It鈥檚 only 112 ft from the ground level or something like that. That鈥檚 why it was called. It鈥檚 very gentle hill. We sat when we visited, we sat in the corner, right in the place he was killed. Reading his letters, his last letter. And we read that on the 40th or 50th anniversary of him writing that exact letter. And then we could trace back where his main group had been. He had left the letter, and that was it.

He had kept a diary, from when he met my mother until 14th June, and that was when they got their francs. And he鈥檚 got his last letters in it. 鈥淲e had our francs issued today, so now we know we鈥檙e on our way鈥� sort of thing. And wrote the whole letter to us, summing up our thoughts about us and my mother. Oh, I have it in the Newry & Mourne War Dead book, they published it all. Right up there, and his last unfinished letter at Le Bon Rapeux.

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