At Adanac Military Cemetery

Piper James Cleland Richardson VC, Adanac Military Cemetery, France. (P. Ferguson image, September 18, 2017)

Before and For All Time

On a rainy day towards the Somme, we stop at Beaumont-Hamel and Thiepval before heading a short distance to Adanac Military Cemetery, to observe the day at the graveside of Piper James Cleland Richardson VC. Although we have been before, time and time again, our observances here strike a new note amidst this battlefield cemetery, amidst these farmer’s fields.

There is nothing about, save for speeding cars and the occasional large tractor and farmhand lumbering about the small roads to tend one of their fields or to return home for the family dinner. As I stand by the Piper’s graveside I look towards Thiepval visible on the horizon, only disturbed by the passing cables of hydro lines. The buzz of modernity a dim contrast to the sounds once heard here of an earlier modern – weapons of the day heard in between the calls of men. One does not wonder here why the second b in bomb is silent.

Time and time again I return to the Piper and with each squishy step I take I mash myself between the rows of muddy grass and headstones, looking and listening, always searching here amongst those who have been before and remain for all time.