With this function the War History of the unit comes to an end. Practically all of us are now back in civil life, a few not much the worse for wear, others maimed or with impaired faculties, but 870 Officers and Other Ranks rest in France and Belgium, and to their memory it is hoped to erect a memorial over there.
The telegraph post at which the Padre is standing marks the site of the Battalion Memorial, with the broken trees surrounding Vaucellette Farm about 200 yards behind.
As the 55th Division Memorial is to be put on GIVENCHY HILL, the scene of the Battalion’s best-known exploit, another site has had to be fixed upon. This has been found on the crest of the ridge on which VAUCELLETTE FARM stood, where the Battalion on 30th November, standing alone, stemmed the advancing tide of Huns. To the Maire of VILLERS GUISLAIN and to M.M. Henri and Leon Nolin, the owners of the ground, we owe the gift of a small square plot by the roadside there, on which to erect a memorial to our comrades.
“These gave up the years to be
Of joy and work, and that unhoped serene
That men call age; and those who would have been
Their sons, they gave, their immortality.”
Although many graves have been marked and identified, there are countless others which never can be; hence the necessity of a single monument to include all.
Those graves which can be identified have been marked with the Divisional Cocarde, a representation (about six inches in diameter) in colour, on enamelled iron, of the 55th Division badge.