We are pleased to inform members and friends that our Marathon Team is continuing to do sterling work again this year to raise the profile of the WFA and commemoration – 'A Century of Armed Service'.

Our runners are continuing to work against personal injury, Achilles and other problems but they are determined to support us and our educational remit of education and 'Remembering'.

2012's foray into this new sphere of enthusiasts brought us much in the way of success – we had many give to us for our fund of something relevant to today's serving forces in the name of those who have gone before.

We have had runners in Paris and London so far this year with good times of 4hours 4 minutes and 4.25. They are aiming now for the Milton Keynes one and the Edinburgh, both in May. We are hoping that the weather will be kinder - the coldest and wettest day for one race and the hottest and sunburn for the other, did not make for easy achievement. But with the idea of what the 'Lads' went through well in their sights, they succeeded.

As you know, with your help, we raised £1,500 last year and so are hoping to better that this year and to work towards running marathons throughout the Centenary period. They are running on behalf of the WFA, and in WFA vests, and will be raising money for a current services project, yet to be finalised. More of this to come so watch this space!
Branch Chairmen will again be receiving a sponsorship letter in the next few days. For anyone who would like to know more, then please contact the WFA Honorary Assistant Secretary Jane Backhouse on her usual contact details at MK branch – see inside The Bulletin front cover. Any member requiring their own personal sponsor form needs to let Jane know and she will email or post one out to you.

Information about the event itself can be found from Jane directly. The event is fully sponsored by MKDons and others and the runners will be completing their run with a lap of the stadium. We will be represented again at Mile 8, manning a Hydration Station, giving out Gatorade and water to runners. The team of willing volunteers has even grown despite last year's trying conditions. If anyone is interested in attending and assisting us here, then again please let Jane know. Last year we had some most generous donations from branches and individual members, for which we are most grateful.

We are proud to be able to make a difference to the current 'Lads' in the name of our own special 'Lads', whose memory we treasure.

'We will remember them'

Jane Backhouse

We'd like to update you with our current "Pilgrim's Progress". We left the UK two weeks ago and wanted to complete as many of the 1914 burial grounds that remained from last year. The two weeks has taken us to the furthest west and south (St Nazaire and Nantes) we have yet ventured, although Marseilles beckons!

With the exception of the hospital cemeteries on the coast (and Versailles) there were no visitors books to sign and of course no register to check if any casualty was buried away from the Commonwealth plot. Although we were better prepared this year, having checked cemetery casualty numbers recorded on the CWGC site, when you arrive at some of the big town communal cemeteries and find that your burial figures don't tally, it can be daunting, and was!

The Paris burial grounds gave us our biggest challenge; even finding a parking space was a problem, but incorrect addresses on the C.W.G site exasperated the problem; Athis-Mons was listed as a Belgian post code! Even using Google Earth did not allow us to correct one of their errors.

Away from cemeteries of the Western Front, these isolated Communal Cemeteries with their small plots; perhaps one or two casualties, receive so few visitors, that maybe it's time we thought about concentrating their graves to a more accessible location? We have yet to see a visitor in any of the Commonwealth plots so far visited! Come the 100th commemorations no doubt every man and his dog will be at Thiepval, but what of Private William John D'Arcy Rigg in Argentan Communal Cemetery (see image above)? This is what our pilgrimage is about.

We have now arrived in Northern France and it feels like being home! Our thoughts now turn to the 1915 burial grounds and how we will tackle them?

Steve and Nancy Binks