On my family's holiday to Belgium we decided to take a diversion and visit the Cemetery at Arras in France to see the Flying Services Memorial there. It's a very moving monument with over a 1000 names of airmen who served with the Royal Flying Corp, Royal Naval Air Service and the combined Royal Air Force who were killed on the Western Front but have no known grave.
We had decided to visit the memorial to find the names of two men on the memorial, Lt Thomas Beck and 2Lt Lawrence Percy Perry of 48 Squadron.
Lt. Beck and his pilot Buckingham were reported missing in action on the 1st October 1918. They were both taken prisoner but Beck died from his wounds.
2/Lt Perry and his pilot 2/Lt McCulloch were reported Missing in Action on the 2nd September 1918 when they failed to return from a patrol. They were seen to go down behind enemy lines and while McCulloch was taken prisoner Perry was killed.
My wife was surprised by how heartbreaking the whole cemetery was with approximately 35000 names listed on the walls and a further 2651 graves. It was the amount of names all of whom would have had mother to mourn them that she found so emotional. Our little 2 year old boy energetically explored the whole place playing Buzz Lightyear, we didn't think the boys there would mind. We tried to explain the place to him but he didn't understand except as we left the cemetery he did turn and say "Goodbye Soldiers".
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