My great uncle, Frank Anderson, died of his wounds in the Great War. His body is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Aubigny-sur-Artois in the Nord departement in France. Here in the Somme is the Chinese Cemetery at Noyelles-sur-Mer, on the way to the coast. The entrance gate, the design of Sir Edwin Lutyens, is shown in the photograph above.
In this cemetery are the graves of those Chinese who came from far away to join the Chinese Labour Corps. Many of them stayed on after 1918 and died in the Spanish Influenza epidemic. The cemetery is poignant and deeply moving.
It is sad to hear the reports from Africa of the bodies of black soldiers not treated with the respect that was undoubtedly their due, alongside their white colleagues. One hopes that this will soon be rectified.
The little cemetery at Noyelles shows the intention (apparently not always fulfilled) of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission that there should be no distinctions among the dead of race or class.
Formerly an Anglican priest (ordained 1975) I was received into the Catholic Church in February 2012, and ordained to the Diaconate on 27th July 2013 and on 29th October 2013 was ordained to the priesthood by the Archbishop of Southwark Peter Smith. After a spell in London (Precious Blood, Borough) I became parish priest of Pont Rémy in the Diocese of Amiens, northern France.
I am deeply committed to the Ordinariate as a gift of the Holy Spirit in the search for unity. Like many Ordinariate members I feel a personal gratitude to the late Pope Benedict, together with loyalty to our Holy Father, Pope Leo. My blog tries to make a small contribution to the growth of the Ordinariate by asking questions (and proposing some answers) about the 'Anglican Patrimony'.
I shall be ever grateful for the years in France, a wonderful ending to the years of parish ministry. Back in the UK I am attached, very happily, to the parish of Holy Trinity, Dorchester (HTD) and help out where needed in the Catholic parishes of South Dorset.
