James Fisk - Our Project

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  Thiepval Memorial in the distance
  Taken from the road past the Canadian Memorial at Beaumont Hemel
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  Thiepval Memorial dedicated to the missing of the Somme
  11th April 2014
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  Finding the memorial reference
  James Fisk was a Royal Fusilier and listed on name panel 16A
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  Name panel 16A
  On the right hand side of the Thiepval Memorial
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  James Fisk's name
  Halfway down on the list
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  George stands below the panel with James' name on it
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  George thinks about James as he places the Marlesford cross on the memorial
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  The Marlesford cross below the name panel where James' name is inscribed
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  George and Tom under the name panel
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  The Marlesford cross is placed in the peaceful wood to the right of the memorial
  The cross is made from an oak tree from Marlesford
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  The Marlesford cross
  Connecting James with Marlesford and his comrades from Marlesford that fell during the Great War
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  The wood to the right of Thiepval Memorial
  The Marlesford cross was left at the foot of a tree

We visited Thiepval Memorial in the afternoon of Friday 11th April 2014.

The name of the soldier we were searching for was James Fisk.

Our boys searched the memorial register to find the name of James amongst the 72,000 names of soldiers that have no known grave, who were lost during the fighting around the Somme area of France. The memorial register gave us the name panel reference for the boys to search for.

The boys had to find name panel 16A, which they did in no time at all. George was thrilled to find the name on the memorial of his first soldier from Marlesford.

The size of the memorial is staggering and to think that it commemorates 72,000 men, that have no know grave, gives some perspective to the scale of fighting during the Great War.

Because James is commemorated on a memorial we felt that we didn't want to leave the Marlesford cross without a specific location. We looked around to see if there was a suitable place to put the Marlesford cross and only 30m from the name panel is a small wood. We walked in the wood, found a tree and placed the Marlesford cross at the foot of the tree. There were wild flowers growing in the wood and the cross had its home - just like the countryside of Marlesford. We said a few words to James and left the cross in situ.

If you have any information on James Fisk please contact us