ALI CASEY – BELGIUM BOUND

Two veterans’ volunteers travelled to Belgium to represent their town’s fallen soldiers at a First World War memorial event.

Cllr Jean Hart, of Dinnington St John’ Town Council, took a trip to  the Menin Gate in Ypres with standard-bearer Ali Casey. (MCVC) The two Royal British Legion (RBL) volunteers marched for Dinnington and the Dinnington and Districts branch at the GP90 parade last Thursday.

This marked the 90th anniversary since The Great Pilgrimage, when veterans and their wives —or widows — visited the battlefields where their loved ones fought and fell from 1914 – 18. The pair joined 30 other RBL ambassadors on a coach to Belgium.

Cllr Hart, who formerly served in the Royal Air Force, planned to document the trip in a diary. “More than 57,000 men died on the firstly of the Somme Offensive, ” she said. “Hundreds of them were never found — Belgium farmers are still digging up their photographs and letters.

“We want their relatives and descendants to know that people still think of them.”

Te remembrance trip was financed by the Royal British Legion’s Dinnington and District branch, with help from Dinnington St John’s Town Council.