Lca History Talk - a Pilgrimage of Remembrance to France and Flanders

This talk recounts a deeply personal journey through the battlefields and memorials of the First World War.

Accompanied by Military Historian Nick Saunders, the author retraces the final days of his grandfather, Walter Hobby, a Milford postman who served with 142 Company, Machine Gun Corps, and was killed near Graincourt in December 1917.

Using war diaries, trench maps and modern satellite technology, they follow Walter's movements through Kangaroo Alley, Bourlon Wood and the Hindenburg Line.

Laying wreaths where Walter fell and at the Arras Memorial becomes the emotional heart of the pilgrimage.

The journey visits preserved trenches, cemeteries and memorials at the Somme, Thiepval, Vimy Ridge, Neuve-Chapelle, Ypres, Passchendaele and Tyne Cot.

At Talbot House in Poperinge, the author explores the origins of Toc H and its enduring links with Milford and Lymington.

The pilgrimage concludes at Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery, where a wreath is laid for Milford soldier Albert Rickman, executed for desertion in 1916 and posthumously pardoned in 2006.

Blending family memory, local history and battlefield testimony, the account honours those who served, suffered and died, while reflecting on remembrance, sacrifice, fellowship and the continuing emotional power of pilgrimage across generations and local communities.

This talk is carried out by Chris Hobby.