STIMPSON SHOUT

17
“SEEING ALL THE GRAVES, SOME ONLY 17
YEARS OLD, REALLY OPENED MY EYES TO
EXACTLY HOW CRUEL WAR IS.”
-SOPHIE
The Thiepval War Memorial to the Missing of the Somme pays tribute to the 72,246 missing British Empire servicemen with no
known grave. The names of these individuals carved onto the many walls of the memorial itself. I was fortunate enough to visit this
as part of a family holiday in 2014 and it had a profound effect on me and my understanding of the First World War; particularly the
iconic graves marked with the words “A Soldier of the Great War Known Unto God”, i.e. a soldier whose name was not known and
whose family would not have known what happened to them. I wanted to give the same opportunity to our young people.
It goes without saying that our young people were respectful and appropriate throughout their visit but this was much more than
that. Many were heard to comment on how they personally had been affected by the visit, tears were shed, crosses laid and prayers
whispered where people felt it appropriate. However, my own memory of
this visit can be summed up by the words of one young man when we
returned to the coach. He came to me and said “Mr. Norman,
thank you for bringing us here and helping us understand
what others sacrificed. We needed to see this, everyone
needs to see this!”.
Mr. Norman
Head of Performing Arts