WW1 Family Connection

When my daughter was doing WW1 history at school, I was also doing the same but on a more personal level.
I had been researching my family tree for a few years by that time but was still at the stage of : he was born, married, died, end of story. When I decided to try to go more in depth.
I tried to find what part my great grandfather had played in the First World War. Well that proved to be a dead end because he played no part. My great grandfather was turned down for active service because of a heart condition. However, I discovered that three of his brothers joined up and that one did not make it home. I decided to find out as much information as I could about Tom.
Firstly, I did what most people do nowadays. Yes that’s right.. I googled him. I was hopeful but not overly optimistic. Hope triumphed. There he was. His photograph is displayed in the Bassetlaw Museum. I now had a face to go with the name.
The next step was to search the CWGC (Commonwealth War Graves Commision) website. From there I discovered that he has a memorial plaque in Tyne Cot British Cemetery , which is 9 kilometres from the town of Ieper(Ypres) Belgium. I knew it was “my” Tom because 1. It was the correct regiment, the Sherwood Forester’s (Notts and Derbyshire Regt.) 2. His service number matched what I had already found out. 3. He was the son of Frederick and Caroline (my great great grandparents). I took note of  the grave memorial reference number. At the time, it was only for reference purposes. I now, also had a date for his death.
A few months after I had received this information, I was invited to a school parents evening to discuss the forthcoming school trip to the First World War battle sites that my daughter was going on. I had known about this excursion for some time but we had not received an itinery upto that point. The children were to visit battle sites, such as the Somme, and Allied War cemeteries in France as well as a German cemetery. The final day of the school trip was to be spent at Tyne Cot British Cemetery and   the school would be taking part in the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate. The teacher went onto explain that the children were each given a poppy to place at a grave or plaque in Tyne Cot Cemetery. After the meeting had finished I asked to speak to the teacher who was in charge and asked him if it would be at all  possible for my daughter to lay her poppy at my great uncle’s plaque. He was very happy to oblige.
In September of 2006, my daughter was the first member of my family, close and distant, to have seen that plaque. She said that visiting a cemetery where she knew, for a fact, that a member of her distant family was remembered made the experience Very real and personal to her. I cannot even begin to describe what it did for me when I saw the photographs that she had taken.
World History brought to life by Family History.