James,

Over a week has passed since we returned from our tour of The Somme and Ypres and, among other things, it has been a time for reflection. So where should I start with this note? Well, from our collective point of view the weekend was an outstanding success and there were several reasons why, including:

• The planning, attention to detail and great care taken by you and Annette in seeing to the tour being an unforgettable experience

• Your encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject at the macro level and indeed perhaps even more impressively at the level of the individual soldier made a huge contribution to us gaining a deeper and more profound understanding of what went on in July 1916 at the Somme and from 1914 to 1918 at Ypres.

• The reverence that you have for the memory of those who fell was demonstrated in a number of ways; including the accounts you gave of what happened and the simple but generous act of taking photographs of headstones for those who cannot make the journey.

• Your willingness to adjust your plan to allow more time at places in which we expressed interest, including diversions to the memorials for the 51st Highland Division, near the Newfoundlanders Memorial, the Pipers memorial in Longueval and Delville Wood.

I wrote this to a good friend over the weekend:

"Our visit to the Somme and Ypres last weekend was a huge success. James Power of Somme Battlefield Tours, our tour organiser and guide, with his wife Annette, provided a complete and thorough service. The six of us, Jackie, the boys and myself, with my parents, were picked up at 0600 on Friday. The Eurotunnel service was trouble free and after a quick lunch in Albert, we were on the Somme that afternoon. James has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject and as well as giving good historical accounts of what happened, to whom and where, was able to personalise much of the experience by singling out individual soldiers or asking us to consider quite ordinary things in the context of that fateful day, July 1st 1916. We visited Serre No 2, Thiepval (73,000 names of the missing from the first battle of the Somme) and other cemeteries. The memorial to the Newfoundlanders, where trenches are still in place, was particularly sobering as nearby there were memorials to the 51 Highland Division. The battles for Beaumont Hamel were of interest since it was the 9th Scottish Division that finally took the village in November 1916. The village of Longueval gave us pause for thought as it has a memorial to Pipers. Delville Wood was chilling; it is estimated that at least 5,000 are interred there, most of them South African.

The second half of the tour took us to Flanders and Ypres. First stop, the Menin Gate to hear the buglers play Last Post. I have heard it played many times but never as well as on Saturday evening. It was spellbinding. On Sunday we visited the infamous Hill 60, overlooking Ypres (another 5,000 or so) and then later followed the line of battle up to the village of Passchendaele, where my grandfather was badly wounded. Thankfully he survived the War. The penultimate stop was Tyne Cot Cemetery, where the headstones of most of the 12,000 buried there carry the inscription "A Soldier of the Great War". One of the headstones belongs to an A Lightfoot of the North Yorkshire Regiment, which my father happened upon. Another belongs to an Australian Sgt who was killed taking a German bunker. That same bunker is within the walls of the cemetery, so the Australian who was awarded the VC for his gallantry is buried where he fell.

And then on the way from Ypres to Calais we pulled off the road and called in at one of the many small cemeteries that dot the landscape and paid our respects at the grave of Captain Noel Chavasse of the Army Medical Corps, attached to the Cheshires. He was the only VC and bar of the Great War - a non-combatant."

[.....]

I congratulate you in achieving what many can only dream of: turning a deep interest in a particular subject into a highly successful business. What you have created with Somme Battlefield Tours is very special, at a personal level. One is left with the sense that you care for each and every individual, known or not, who fell in the Great War because your interest extends beyond knowing the facts.

[....]

Please pass on my very best wishes to Annette. So all that remains, at least in the context of this inadequate note is simply to say "Thank you".

Archie

E-mail from Mrs Diana Pelly re tour 17-19 April 2007

Dear James and Annette

Here I am back again, this time to say a proper thank you!

Thank you for giving us all a totally fascinating and absorbing three days.

You made it so interesting with the perfect combination of 'chat', photographs, drives and walks. It truly was the best of history lessons in every way.

Annette, your tlc was wonderful! There would definitely have been some flagging without our coffee and tea breaks. Roley's going to miss your spoiling bag of sweets every afternoon!

It's still quite hard to believe I stood in the Burial Ground on that beautiful Spring afternoon looking down at Billy's grave. I cannot thank you enough for making that special detour.

We want to thank you so much for a great weekend in France.

Your knowledge and energy made it such an interesting experience. You'd only need to hear us telling friends and family about the tour to know how much we'd enjoyed it and learned from it. It was thoroughly professional and the attention to detail left nothing wanting.

Our group was also a delight to be with - you obviously attract great people!!

We wish you well with the rest of the year, 

Regards Valerie & Frank

E-mail  11.10.06 ref Somme & Ypres tour 6-8 October 2006

Hi James