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AT LAST A VISITOR CENTRE AT THIEPVAL
The Visitor centre is
now the property of the
Conseil Général de la
Somme and managed on their behalf by their own Historial de
la Grande Guerre museum located in Péronne
This
website was the UK fundraising vehicle for the establishment of
a Visitor Centre near to the Lutyens memorial to the Missing
of the Battle of the Somme at Thiepval.
After eight years during which the dreams of thousands of
benefactors gradually became reality the new Centre is now
open and, as always planned, is the property of the Conseil
Général
of the Somme and under the management of their Historial de
la Grande Guerre (museum) of
Péronne.
For details of all that happened to make this possible
please go to
-
'THE
CREATION OF THE CENTRE'
For details of the opening ceremony in September 2004 go to
-
'NEWSLETTER - FINAL EDITION' and
'PHOTOGRAPHS'
For opening times, how to
get there and the latest news please go to:-
'STOP PRESS'
Thiepval is the largest and one of the most emotive
memorials to the Missing from any war in which British
soldiers have died. It stands in an isolated windswept
position on the Somme - and had absolutely no facilities for
visitors and nothing to explain what had happened in 1916.
All that visitors found were 600 British and French graves
and the names of over 72,000 British soldiers carved into
the stone of the massive memorial, designed by Sir Edwin
Lutyens and impressively maintained by the
Commonwealth
War Graves Commission. (CWGC)
Tragically, many of us have a direct family connection with
at least one of these names. That is why we return; and that
is why many thousands of school children are taken there
each year.
In 1999, under the patronage of His Royal Highness The Duke
of Kent and Sir Michael Jay, the then British Ambassador to
France, a small group of people came together to rectify
this sad situation. This group consisted of Sir Frank Sanderson
OBE (a Royal British Legion branch chairman), Colonel Piers
Storie-Pugh (Royal British Legion)
www.britishlegion.org.uk, Madame
Geneviève Potié MBE (the Mayor
of Thiepval), Brigadier Andrew Gadsby (then Military Attaché
at the British Embassy in Paris) and Sénateur Fernand
Demilly, then Président of the Conseil Général of the
Département of the Somme.
After
searching for a way forward it was soon realised by the
British members of the group that the only solution was for
them to seek to raise funds in the UK and then discuss the matter
with the Département of the Somme. Sénateur Demilly then
generously agreed not only to match funds raised in the UK,
but also to organise the construction and then to run the
visitor centre. This arrangement was welcomed by the British
Government and UK fundraising went ahead. The Centre was
opened by
His Royal Highness
on 27th September 2004 and is now the property of and run by
the Conseil Général de la Somme.
All the research, history, fundraising and
UK management was voluntary and including the un-costed
'time' of members of the Somme departmental staff the total
cost was in the region of £2,000,000
Last updated 24h April 2008 |
