(All images by Michael St. Maur Sheil via MaryEvans.com, reproduced with permission)
The 100th anniversary year marking the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 has brought numerous news articles featuring imagery that is both awe-inspiring and moving. From the dark days of the trenches to photos of war-torn villages overlaid with modern scenes, the horrors of war juxtaposed with the peaceful countryside and beaches of present-day Europe make for some startling imagery.
Today, the fields of France and Belgium are punctuated with the resting places of fallen soldiers, maintained within well-tended cemeteries by organisations like the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. But the final resting place of French soldier Edouard Ivaldi (above) in Champagne is arguably one of the most poignant monuments of the Great War. Placed atop a simple wooden cross is the helmet Ivaldi was wearing the day he was killed – April 30, 1917.
With his antique helmet rusted to earthen shades, this is the last known battlefield burial site to retain the soldier’s personal equipment. The plaque that hangs over the cross, meanwhile, was placed there by Ivaldi’s father in 1919 in honour of his son and the multitudes who fell in the Great War.
(Images by Michael St. Maur Sheil (Western Front Photography) courtesy of Mary Evans Picture Library, all rights reserved. For commercial licensing or publication, contact MaryEvans.com)
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