Sunderland school children place tributes in third annual Somme trip
16 May 2012
A group of schoolchildren have placed tributes at memorials on
the Somme, on behalf of relatives back home in the north east of
England.
The students attend Springwell Dene School in Sunderland, which
caters for children who find it difficult to cope in the mainstream
school environment.
For the past three years the school has organised a trip to the
battlefields and memorials of the Somme. This year - after a
campaign in the local press to find interested relatives - the
pupils placed a cross in memory of seven men from their area who
were killed in battle.
Five of the men have no known grave, and so are commemorated on
the Thiepval Memorial to
the Missing. One is buried at Hermies Hill
British Cemetery, and another at Pozieres British
Cemetery.
The families of the seven men have been invited to a
presentation at the school, at which they will receive photographs
of the memorials and certificates downloaded from the Commonwealth
War Graves Commission website.
The assistant head at Springwell Dene, Alan Douglas, said the
trips meant a lot to the students - many of whom had not been
outside the UK before. They were particularly affected by the large
number of men from the Sunderland area who had been killed - and
how young they were.