Laid Gallery

Coloured shoulder patches of the Australian Corps

Souvenir of the Greatest War showing coloured shoulder patches of the Australian Corps. The design is laid out in the shape of the Australian Commonwealth Military Forces badge and includes the five Divisions, the Australian Light Horse and details of the ancilliary units. Also includes four small vignettes by Sergeant F. G. Gross, AIF. Published by J. Graham & Co., London, EC. English School

© David Cohen Fine Art/Mary Evans Picture Library

Unceasing stream of pilgrims 1920

Two photographs showing the Unknown Warriors coffin which were the remains of a British service personnel who was killed in World War One, laid to rest in Westminster Abbey, London. Once the ceremony was finished, more than 40,000 pilgrims came from all over the country, to pay their respects, for three days people who had lost their sons, brothers or fathers in WWI queued outside. When Westminster Abbey closed the doors, thousands of people laid wreaths and flowers at Cenotaph monument, two narrow lines were formed going back to Trafalgar Square.
1920

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Jan van Hoof headstone, Dutch Wargraves Cemetery

This is in the back right hand corner of a Cemetery of Honour which was laid out in 1971.The Dutch flag flies here and there is a plaque to The Fallen 1940-1945'. It contains headstones to forty-eight victims of the war, the final one of which is that of Jan van Hoof. The story of this young Resistance worker, who is credited with disabling the explosive charges under the bridge at Nijmegen during Operation Market Garden, is a complicated one with claims and counter-claims about just what he did do. His action at Nijmegen gained him the Military Order of William. Van Hoof's Memorial in Nijmegen says that he was shot by the Germans on September 19th and died on the spot where he was shot near the bridge, while this marker says that he died on 22 September - all part of the van Hoof story. Date: 2001

© Holts Battlefield Collection / Mary Evans