From Frank Thorne, Text Written on May 7, 2020.


Looking back, one of my fondest memories of Graham was a long weekend trip to the World War 1 “killing fields” of Northern France in 1987 with a small gang of Sunday People reporters.
We were all mates and the late Paul Davidson, who lived in Colchester and had close links with the Army in the garrison town, had a keen interest imn military history and urged those pacifists amongst us to join him in this life-changing tour. Yes, those exra ordoimary trenches, battlefields and seemingly nending war graves have to be seen to be believed. No words can describe what those brave young men went through to maintain the freedoms we were all so fortunate to grow up enjoying.
The most moving late morning came for us on day two when, at the insistence of Ted Hynds, then boss of Devon News in Exeter and a People stalwart, we visited a tiny hillside war graves site outside the village of Mametz where a unit of young men from the 9th Devons met their ends. The misty colour photograph of us all was taken on an automatic timer with my camera perched on top of a gravestone. It was a cold morning and I remember a mist coming down and in an eerie scene, raindrops dripping from overhanding tree branches, like tears. Very moving. 
Particularly as Ted pointed out the historic poem in a plastci bag pinned to his grave written by one young officer, Lieutenant Willian Hodgson M C, who had a premonion of impending disaster while on home leave that if the Germans had a machine gun emplacement hidden behind a shrine of Our Lady at a crossroads, they would be cut down where they stood. Unforunately, his commanders refused to listen to his warning. On July 1 1916, Lt Hpdgson’s terrible prediction came true. They were slaiughtered in minutes.
Lt Hodgson’s poem ended predicting their death on that small hill : "Ere the sun swings his noonday sword, Must say good-bye to all of this:- By all delights that I shall miss, Help me to die, O Lord."
I was 41 years old when this picture was taken, so that makes it 30 years ago, as I am now 71. Yes, back then, we all wore much younger men’s clothes. Left to right: Mydrim Jones, Ted Hynds, Paul Davidson (RIP), Graham Ball (RIP), Frank Thorne and, at the back, Phil Hall.