739. Hugh Frederick Gilland

I'm having a bit of a WW1 commemorative theme at the moment....
Whilst we were on our latest battlefield tour we met an amazing couple from the Isle of Wight who were trying to find someone they thought might be a relative of theirs...they have an unusual surname and thought perhaps this fallen soldier was related to them but had been unable to find out anything much about him.

I took all of the details and agreed to try and research online when we got home and send them anything I found....so the search began....

I took this photo of them at the Notre Dame de-Lorette French War Grave Memorial, affectionately known as the "Doughnut" because of it's shape, where every man who fell on the Somme is remembered....we found Hugh Frederick Gilland on the memorial and it was quite an emotional experience for them too....

Now back home I have started the research and have found quite a bit about him and many records from Canada, his country of birth....I am in the process of collating everything and then will print it all out and post it to them...they were delighted with this photo which I sent recently.

I thought about this process today because we are heading to Edinburgh later to share all of the information we found out about hubby's grandfather when we visited Torun in September....we have put together a presentation including video footage of the POW camp he was held in for his daughter as she has never seen anything about where he was held during the second world war for 5 years.....it could be an emotional day for us all......

I'm in a reflective mood this week as we have a few anniversaries in November that make us think about those that have gone before us...my Dad passed away 10 years ago on Friday and hubby's first wife passed away 14 years ago in a couple of weeks' time...life is short and sometimes fleeting for many....