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| Private Peaceful Newspaper |
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‘Private Peaceful’ by Michael Morpurgo was the stimulus for our joint trip with Taverham Hall to Ypres and the World War I battlefields and on reading it I knew we were in for an interesting experience. Almost all of the Div VII and VIII pupils boarded overnight in anticipation for the 4.30 am departure. As we crossed the Thames the sunshine gave way to the rain that had fallen in such abundance the previous day and that gave Northern Belgium such a sombre appearance. Our first stop was Bedford House Cemetery and the grave of Private Peaceful who gave a name to Murpurgo’s central character. We were all impressed by the ranks of white Portland Stone headstones so often bearing the simple legend ‘A soldier of the Great War Known unto God’. A few bore the Star of David rather than a cross and in one section all the graves were of Hindu soldiers. Major Mike Peters, a serving soldier and our guide, began to explain about the recruitment of young men, their training and their arrival in the trenches. Bayernwald Trench system enabled us to get a feel (albeit sanitised without the rats, the noise, the smell, the lice …) for the life of Charlie and Tommo Peaceful and their comrades. Then a taste of military discipline and Sergeant ‘orrible’ Handley. Chocolate shopping in Ypres, amongst the impressive restored houses, shops and public buildings, was either a welcome distraction or ridiculously incongruous given the photos of total distruction that we had been shown. Walking around the town and even up to the Menin Gate it was difficult to imagine how it would have felt 90 years earlier, but as the several hundred present there at 8.00 pm fell silent to the strains of the Last Post, sounded almost every evening since 1926 by the Ypres Fire Brigade, we felt a unity with all the names on the memorial. Harry Williamson found a namesake on one wall and was moved as a wheelchairbound old soldier allowed tears to run down his cheeks. The next morning we began by a visit to the Langemarck German Cemetery, where the children were struck by the black granite stones often lying flat on the ground and the huge number of soldiers placed in communal graves. Discussions ensued about the reaction of the soldiers when meeting ‘the enemy’ close up with reference to both Private Peaceful and the 1914 Christmas Truce. Hill 60 with its scars and stories of close hand-to-hand fighting was followed by the stories of executed soldiers at the China Wall Cemetery. Our final stop was Poperinghe (Pops to the troops). This was the place where the soldiers came to rest, play and eat egg and chips! It was also where Charlie Peaceful was shot at dawn and there was a notable silence as we left the condemned man’s cell. The trip was almost over with just the journey home to come. It had been a whirlwind two days with lots (probably too much for the children) to take in and to think about. A very different experience – thank you Mrs Hayes! 
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