British-Iberian Celts

Celtic (Druidic) Trinity

At the time Joseph arrived in Britain, the inhabitants were known as Kelts (now mostly written as Celts). Their name is derived from the Cimmerians, a people group who travelled from around the Caspian Sea where they appeared in the 7th century BC. Interestingly this is the same area the Israelites were taken to in exile under the Assyrians. The Welsh people today are still known as Cymry (from Cimmerian). Perhaps not surprisingly then, the geographical areas where the Celts settled in Europe on their journeys west (that have survived to this day) are called, among others, the Iberian Peninsula, Hibernia and the Hebrides. All derived, it seems, from the name Hebrew.
Anyway, the Celts had their own priesthood called the Druids. Their headquarters, were in England, probably at Stonehenge, and students came from France and Spain to study there. They believed in a form of the Trinity, one aspect of which was called Esus (!). This may explain why there is no record of a Druidic persecution of the early Christian missionaries. They simply saw Jesus, the Son of God, as a fulfillment of their own faith. This is remarkable and is unique among all the pagan faiths. Later, Rome was to sanction the sword to enforce the 'Christianisation' of pagan peoples in Europe. The Druids, on the other hand, accepted freely (though of course faster in some areas than in others). They also, like the ancient Hebrews, had no graved images or idols, and they believed in the immortality of life.
The Romans, when they invaded, tried to stamp out the Druidic faith - as well as early Christianity - by propagating that the Druids indulged in human sacrifices etc. This seems to be more based on the need to get Rome to support the war in Britain than on historical fact. None of the early Christians report this practice or speak against it. They appear not to be aware of it at all.

Joseph of Arimathea sent into exile

Saint Joseph of Arimathea

Within a few years following the disappearance of Jesus' body from the tomb, and the claim that he had resurrected, persecution against the church broke out. Once Pontius Pilate was recalled to Rome for investigation around 36 AD, the Sanhedrin struck. Stephen was the first martyr to die in Jerusalem itself. No mercy was shown this messianic Jewish sect. The disciples (or talmidim in Hebrew) were scattered out of Jerusalem and even Judea (Acts 8.14). Such was the situation within 6 years of Jesus beginning his mission. It seemed the whole movement was over. But what happened to Joseph of Arimathea during this persecution? Tradition tells us a few stories, coming together in the Middle Ages, but dating back much further. Putting them together, we get a basic picture: due to his power and position, Joseph was not killed but rather sent into exile by the Sanhedrin with a group of others.

Cardinal Baronius, curator of the Vatican library, writes in his Ecclesiastical Annals that:

In that year (36 AD) the party mentioned was exposed to the sea in a vessal without sails or oars. The vessal drifted finally to Marseilles and they were saved. From Marseilles Joseph and his company passed into Britain and after preaching the Gospel there, died.

This is remarkable. The curator of the Vatican library is saying that Britain received the Gospel very early on - perhaps in the late 30's - way before Rome did!! This puts Britain as a prior contender for ecclesiastical primacy over against Rome. And the evidence for this comes from the Vatican archives themselves!

Joseph of Arimathea - the Decurio

This is an interesting map taken from Steamchip. Normally Tarshish is said to be in Spain, near present day Cadiz, but this offers a possible alternative. Marseilles at this time was indeed a Greek colony. It plays a large role in the Early Church's history, as we'll see later.

In the days of Jesus, the Roman Empire's tin industry was largely based in today's Cornwall, SW England. It is said that Joseph had control over the merchant shipping that exported the smelted tin throughout the Mediterranean area. Tin trade between Phonicia (ancient Lebanon-Israel 1200-800 BC) and the eastern Mediterranean is well attested to in many classical sources, including Diodorus Siculus and Julius Caesar.

According to Mark 15.43 Joseph was noble and honourable in rank. The Latin Vulgate translation (done during the time of the Roman Empire itself) calls him 'Decurio' in this verse. This was an official Roman title to designate those in charge of metal mines, according to Jowett (1961:17). Joseph would thus have been extremely rich as a business man. He was also important enough to have a seat granted him in the Sanhedrin (Mk 15.43). He was thus a rather big fish in a rather small Judean pond. As for his name, if Arimathea is indeed a location rather than a title, then it probably refers to the city of Ramalleh on the caravan route between Nazareth and Jerusalem.

According to the Talmud (ref. to be secured), Joseph was the virgin Mary's uncle and thus a great uncle of Jesus. He was married and had at least one son, called Josephes. If, as tradition seems to suggest, Mary's own husband Joseph died young, then lacking other brothers, it would eventually have fallen to Mary's uncle to become the legal guardian of the family. As such, Jesus may have enjoyed certain privileges as he grew up and maybe even travelled as far as Cornwall in his uncle's ships. British Christian folklore hints that he did. Compare the hymn by William Blake called 'Jerusalem' (1804)


And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountains green?
And was the Holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.



If this relationship between Jesus and Joseph is correct, and all evidence points in that direction, then Jesus was probably not poor. It seems rather that he gave up any right to material wealth when he began his ministry. For his part, Joseph stayed totally loyal to his nephew. In death, he took Jesus' body and laid it in his own expensive tomb.

Early Nazarene Church

James, Leader of the Jerusalem Church, a Praying Man

First, some more info on the leadership and struture of the Jerusalem Church

According to David Hughes:

'James did not believe in Jesus during His earthly ministry (Jn 7:5), but after witnessing Christ's appearance following His resurrection (1 Cor 15:7), he became a believer. He was among those who assembled together after the Ascension of Jesus Christ to Heaven (Acts 1:14) and on whom the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). He afterwards appears as the leader of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 12:17; 15:13-21; Gal. 1:19).

'The office of "the [President]" corresponds to that of a "priest-king". St. James appears in early Christian literature as a high-priest, for Hegesippus (Eusebius, ii. 23. 6) says "he [St. James] alone was permitted to enter into the holy place"; the sanctuary in the Jerusalem Church where upon the high-altar sat the "Holy Grail", which supposedly contained Christ's Blood, the universe's most valuable thing!

'Saint James served as the high priest of the "Christians" [or "Nazarenes"] in Christ's office after the Order of Melchizadek, and not after the Aaronic Order.

'The political structure of the newly organized "Nazarene Ecclesia" was, (1) the Apostle "Saint" James was both the "Royal-Heir" and "High-Priest" [Melchizedek Ordre], who is presented in "Acts of the Apostles" as a "wise interpreter of scriptures who presides over the Church Council and gives his rulings"; (2) the Apostle "Saint" John became the Deputy as from his priestly background he could deal with doctrine and congregational organization issues; and (3) the Apostle "Saint" Peter became the General Supervisor.'

Now we come to the next stage in the development of the story. The persecution around Stephen and the early Jerusalem Christian community.

'Pilate was recalled by Roman Emperor Tiberius in AD 36 over his mismanaging of Judea's affairs. Tradition says the first persecution of the Jerusalem Church took place in AD36.'

It is at this point that our next character enters the scene: Joseph of Arimathea, the uncle of the Virgin Mary, and great uncle to Jesus. Some say his surname is not a location but a hereditary title, Joseph "Ha-Rama-Theo" (His Divine Highness) referring to his royal Davidic lineage.

The Desposyni

"Jesus and His World" by John J Rousseau and Rami Arav © Augsberg Fortress 1995. Copied from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/jesus/tree.html

In order to go back to the beginning of Christian British folklore, we need to begin with the Desposyni. The "Desposyni"/or "Desposynoi", i.e., "The Master's kin," descendants of Jesus' "brothers" and "sisters". According to the New Covenant scriptures, Jesus had four brothers and two sisters (see diagram above).

According to Wikipedia the Desposyni were a constant political threat to the powers that be:

"As some asserted their descent from both king David and high priest Aaron, all male desposyni could have laid claim to both the throne (King of the Jews) and the office of high priest of Jerusalem. However, the Roman occupation of Palestine (Iudaea province), with the collaboration of the “Judean establishment” (Herodians and Annas and his relatives), made any attempt by a desposynos to rise to or seize political and religious power impossible or limited in scope."

According to David Hughes, the genealogy of the Desposyni is very complicated. Some elements are presented here:

"Joseph, the heir of the descendants of Zorobabel and his 1st wife, married "The Virgin" Mary, daughter of Heli, the heir of the descendants of Zorobabel and his 2nd wife, and were the "legal" parents of Jesus the Christ, virgin-born; of Mary alone, the Messiah.

The mother of "The Virgin" Mary, Anne [Hannah], was one of the three daughters of the High-Priest Jeshua III, who held office from 36BC to 23BC. That is, the Judahite families of Joseph and Mary were united by marriage with a Levite family, who represented the Araonic [high-priest] line.

Anne, begot "The Virgin Mary", who, early orphaned, was placed in an order of temple-virgins. It appears that Prince Heli/Joachim, Mary’s father, was executed either 20/16BC [or 17/13BC] as one of the victims of King Herod’s series of persecutions of the Davidic Dynasty; and, Anne, Mary’s mother, appears to have died several years afterwards. Mary "The Virgin" died between AD 48 and AD 55, for tradition says she died 22 years after the Crucifixion.

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The Gospels furnish two genealogies of Jesus, one in Matthew (Matt. 1:1-17) and one in Luke (Luke 3:23-38), and both trace His ancestry to David. Throughout Jesus' ministry, He allowed others to call Him the "Son of David" (Mark 10:47 et al.). Paul said that Jesus sprang from David's line (Rom. 1:3; 2 Tim. 2:8). In the Book of Acts, which chronicles the early expansion of the church, the first reference to Jesus as the son of David occurs in an excerpt from one of Paul's sermons during his first missionary journey (Acts 13:23). The royal ancestry of Jesus must therefore have been a teaching of the church from the very beginning.

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Joseph "of Arimathea", brother of Mary, was a wealthy merchant who frequently traveled abroad on business trips. He was the ancestor of the line of Grail-Kings.
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The parents of the Jewish prophet John "The Baptist" [the Virgin Mary's cousin] were Elizabeth [the Virgin Mary's aunt], the wife of Zacharias, a Levite priest.
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The "kindred" of Jesus and their male-line descendants were honored in very high degree both by Christians and by various Jewish interest groups alike, as heirs of ancient Jewish royalty, or as earthly representatives of "Christ", the eternal king of the universe.

The "desposyni" took the surname "Kyriakon/or Kyriakas", meaning "The Lord's House". Their claims to be the successors of "another king", one, Jesus, other than Caesar (Acts 17:7), made them rivals of the Roman emperors, and, as such the emperors Domitian, Trajan, and Hadrian, carried out proceedings against the "Desposyn[o]i" descendants of Christianity's "Holy Family".

The Resurrected Lord Jesus had appointed his "brother", according to the flesh, "Saint" James, as the first Bishop of His Church [not St. Peter]. The office of apostle of the Jerusalem Church was elective in the sense that the candidates were chosen by a conclave of twelve apostles who chose lots, but hereditary in the sense that it was confined to the "Desposyni"/"Desposynoi" [= "The Master's Kin"], thus, the office was hereditary however within one specific family-group, the "Jesus' Dynasty", though, open to any member of that family-group, and was called the "n'tzarim" [= "overseer of the Nazarenes", which was an early name for "Christians"], which was abolished by the Roman Emperor Diocletian in AD 306."

James Stivers records the comments of Epiphanus, 4th century Bishop, who wrote on this Desposynic throne:

"Now [...] the throne is established in God’s holy church forever, the throne whose royal and high-priestly dignity rests on two bases - the royal dignity coming from Our Lord Jesus Christ in two ways, from the fact that he is of King David’s seed according to the flesh and from the fact that he is, as is certainly true, a greater king from eternity in his divinity.

James having been ordained at once the first bishop, he who is called the brother of the Lord and apostle... But we find as well that he is of David's stock through being Joseph’s son and that he was a Nazarite. There is much to say about this.
- Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis Panarion 29

To James alone was it allowed to enter once a year into the holy of holies, because he was a Nazarite and connected to the priesthood. Hence Mary was related in two ways to Elizabeth, and James was a distinguished member of the priesthood, because the two tribes alone were linked to one another, the royal tribe to the priestly one and the priestly to the royal... James also wore a plate on his head [the plate is the sacerdotal plate or diadem, cf. Eusebius]. And once during a drought he lifted his hands to heaven and prayed, and at once heaven sent rain, he never wore woolen clothing. His knees grew hard as a camel's from his continual kneeling before the Lord out of excessive piety. Thus they no longer called him by his name: his name was "The Just" [zadok: the righteous]. He never washed in a [ritual Temple] bath, did not partake of animal flesh [Temple sacrifices], as I explained above [as a protest that they were corrupt and the Jesus had accomplished his work], and did not wear sandals. And there is much else that one could say about the man and his virtuous way of life.
- Panarion 78

Stivers also notes how the resurrected Jesus made a special appearance to James:

We are told in the lost Gospel of Hebrews (cited by Jerome), how the risen Jesus appeared to James: The Lord, after he had given his linen clothes to the Servant of the Priest, went to James and appeared to him. For James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour in which he drank the Cup of the Lord until he should see him rising again from those that sleep. "Bring a table and bread", the Lord said. He took the bread, blessed it, and breaking it, gave it to James the Just, saying to him, "My brother, eat your bread, for the Son of Man is risen from among those that sleep."

Further Stivers notes how James' focus was the restoration of the Davidic throne and kingdom:

"After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David..." James in Acts 15:16

The above comes from James’ ruling at the Jerusalem Council and tells us that the prime directive of the Church is to restore the "tabernacle of David". The Church must achieve this before it can succeed in finishing the Great Commission.

For this reason, the status of the Apostles in relation to James was one of subservience. He was a Davidic prince and the viceroy of the Messiah. The Apostles sent him reports of their activities. The Clementine literature (Anti-Nicene Fathers v.8, not to be confused with the epistles called 1 & 2 Clement) comes from Peter’s deacon, Clement, and reports of Peter’s confrontation with Simon the Magician. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was James’ deacon. His death was part of an assault on James by Saul of Tarsus, which James survived (Recognitions of Clement, ANF v. 8, p. 95-96 and Ignatius to Hero, ANF v.1 p. 13)."

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The New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VII, 1967, Catholic University of America, p 805 tells us:

“Both Flavius Josephus (Ant. 209.1) and Hegesippus (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 2.23) tell of the martyrdom of James of Jerusalem. ... According to Joesephus, he was stoned to death in A.D. 62; according to Hegesippus, he was cast from the pinnacle of the Temple in c.A.D. 66, and when the fall did not kill him, he was clubbed to death”

James the Righteous One

In fact, both stories seem to overlap. For after being thrown from the Temple, James was stoned, since the fall didn't kill him. Josephus writes (Antiquities 20.199-203)

[...] this younger Ananus, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees, who are very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed; when, therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity [to exercise his authority]. Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done; they also sent to the king [Agrippa], desiring him to send to Ananus that he should act so no more, for that what he had already done was not to be justified.

Eventually Herod Agrippa II deposed Ananus and put another in the office of High Priest.

Eusebius tells us more about James' last hour, quoting Hegesippus verbatim:

"[...] From which some believed that Jesus was the Christ. But the aforesaid sectarians did not believe either in the Resurrection or that He was coming to give to every one according to his works but as many as did believe, did so on account of James... There arose a riot among the Jews and Scribes and Pharisees, saying that the whole people was in danger of looking for Jesus as the Christ. So they assembled, and said to James, 'We beseech you to restrain the people, who are going astray after Jesus as though he were the Christ. We beseech you to persuade all who are coming to the feast of the Passover rightly concerning Jesus; for all obey you. For we and all the people testify that you are Righteous [or 'the Righteous One'] and do not respect persons. Therefore, persuade the people not to be led astray after Jesus, for all the people and ourselves have confidence in [or obey] you. Therefore stand upon a wing [or 'the Pinnacle'] of the Temple that you may be clearly visible from above and your words readily heard by all the people."

'Stand, therefore, upon the Pinnacle of the Temple that you may be clearly visible on high and your words readily heard by all the people, for because of the Passover all the tribes have gathered together and numbers of Gentiles too.' So the aforesaid Scribes and the Pharisees made James stand on the Pinnacle of the Temple, and shouting to him, cried out, 'O just One, whose word we all ought to obey, since the people are led astray after Jesus, who was crucified, tell us what is the Gate to Jesus?' And he answered shouting out loudly, 'Why do you ask me concerning the Son of Man? He is now sitting in Heaven at the right hand of the Great Power and is about to come on the clouds of Heaven.'

The word 'Pinnacle' (Pterugion) here may also be translated 'wing' or 'parapet', and is twice repeated in the narrative. This links it indisputably with the famous story about Jesus' Temptation in the Wilderness after his baptism by John, where exactly the same phraseology is used: 'He [the Devil or 'the Diabolos'] set him upon the Pinnacle [Pterugion] of the Temple' (Matt 4:5 and Luke 4:8)-

There follows the account, again following Hegesippus, of the attack on James and his fall from the wing or Pinnacle of the Temple. Cast down from a Pinnacle of the temple, his legs broken, but still half alive, raising his hands to heaven, he said, 'Lord forgive them for they know not what they do '.

Thus they were stoning him, when one of the Priests of the sons of Rechab, the son of those Rechabites spoken of by Jeremiah the Prophet, cried out, saying, 'Stop what you are doing, the just One is praying for you.' And one among them, who was a fuller [a laundryman], took the club with which he beat out clothes and struck the just One on the head ... Thus, he suffered martyrdom, and they buried him on the spot by the Temple, and his monument is still there by the Temple ... And immediately Vespasian began to besiege them (Eusebius 454).

In two separate places Eusebius, in writing about Simeon bar Cleophas, the next to succeed among 'the Desposyni', that is, the family of Jesus, informs us that 'Hegesippus tells us that Cleophas was Joseph's brother'. This he tells us in the same breath as the fact that:

After the martyrdom of James and the capture of Jerusalem which immediately followed, there is a firm tradition that those of the Apostles and Disciples of the Lord who were still alive, together with those that were related to the Lord according to the flesh, assembled from all parts [the 'Jerusalem Assembly' or 'Church' again] ... to choose a fit person as successor to James. They unanimously elected Simeon the son of Clopas, mentioned in the Gospel narratives, to occupy the Episcopal Throne there, who was, so they say, a cousin of the Saviour.

It is perhaps not well known that the first 15 bishops of Jerusalem were all Desposyni. They stayed there until the end of the Second Romano-Judean War 132-135 AD, after which all Judeans were expelled from Jerusalem and the Gentile Christians, in tandem with Rome, elected a Gentile (Mark of Caesarea) as Bishop of Jerusalem, which was then demoted as a patriarchate! What happened to these exiled Desposyni remains a bit of a mystery. Tradition says many fled East and eventually merged into the Assyrian Church. One modern 'evangelical', yet Torah-observant community, calling itself the Church of Jerusalem, still claims Desposynic descent and leadership.

"The Assembly teaches that Yeshua the Messiah appointed the Apostle James the Righteous (Ya'aqub ha'Tzaddik) as the head of the earthly assembly, and it continues in this practice today by appointing, in Apostolic Succession, patriarchs in the same line."

The Cambrian Episcopal Church also 'evangelical,' likewise claims Jamesian descent and leadership.


As an aside, Martin Malachi, "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church" (New York: Bantam, 1983) 30-31 remarks,

"A meeting between [Pope] Silvester and the Jewish Christian leaders took place in 318....The vital interview was not, as far as we know, recorded, but the issues were very well known, and it is probable the Joses, the oldest of the Christian Jews, spoke on behalf of the desposyni and the rest.

That most hallowed name, desposyni, had been respected by all believers in the first century and a half of Christian history. The word literally meant, in Greek, "belonging to the Lord." It was reserved uniquely for Jesus' blood relatives. Every part of the ancient Jewish Christian church had always been governed by a desposynos, and each of them carried one of the names traditional in Jesus' family---Zachary, Joseph, John, James, Joses, Simeon, Matthias, and so on. But no one was ever called Jesus. Neither Silvester nor any of the thirty-two popes before him, nor those succeeding him, ever emphasized that there were at least three well-known and authentic lines of legitimate blood descent from Jesus' own family. One from Joachim and Anna, Jesus' maternal grandparents. One from Elizabeth, first cousin of Jesus' mother, Mary, and Elizabeth's husband, Zachary. And one from Cleophas and his wife, who also was a first cousin of Mary.

There were, of course, numerous blood descendants of Joseph, Mary's husband, but only those persons in bloodline with Jesus through his mother qualified as desposyni....

Ever since the Emperor Hadrian had conquered Jerusalem in the year 135, all Jews, and that included Jewish Christians, had been forbidden to enter Jerusalem under pain of instant death... [Gentile Christians then had Jerusalem, that is Aelia Capitolina, as their own.] They therefore asked Silvester to revoke his confirmation of Greek Christian bishops in Jerusalem, in Antioch, in Ephesus, in Alexandria, and to name instead desposynos bishops....

Silvester curtly and decisively dismissed the claims of the Jewish Christians. He told them that the mother church was now in Rome, with the bones of the Apostle Peter, and he insisted that they accept Greek bishops to lead them.

It was the last known discussion between the Jewish Christians of the old mother church and the non-Jewish Christians of the new mother church. By his adaptation, Silvester, backed by Constantine, had decided that the message of Jesus was to be couched in Western terms by Western minds on an imperial model.

The Jewish Christians had no place in such a church structure. They managed to survive until the first decades of the fifth century. Then, one by one, they disappear.... But most of them die---by the sword (Roman garrisons hunted them as outlaws), by starvation (they were deprived of their small farms and could not or would not adapt themselves to life in the big cities), by the attrition of zero birthrate....The desposyni have ceased to exist. Everywhere, the Roman pope commands respect and exercises authority."

But just maybe he's wrong! Though the Herodian dynasty tried to kill the Davidic line and attempted to destroy the Davidic genealogical records, though Annas and Vespasian also tried to wipe the royal line out, though Hadrian and others, including Popes, tried too, it seems the Lord's family is not to die off, according to the Lord's gratuitous covenant with David in 2 Sam 7.

So this is just an introduction into this fascinating subject. Of key interest for British Christian folklore is the figure of Joseph of Arimathea. More on him anon.

Message to Readers

Having realised that my doctoral studies are preventing me from keeping up and blogging on the news as much as I'd like, I've decided to change the material of this blog!

From now on it will focus on an old hobby of mine - deciphering and exploring the ancient Christian traditions of the British Isles. It will be an exciting adventure. Stay tuned.


David

Tribute to Charles Bell

Second Battle of Ypres 1915

Last Friday I went with a friend of mine to vist the war museums around Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium. My own great-grandfather had been killed there in 1915. Our family never knew the details of what happened, as his body was never found. His name, Charles Bell, is on the Menin Gate memorial.

Here follows some of the photos we took that day. I also did a little bit of research and have been able to piece the story together, still ragged, but with more information than we ever had before.

Here is a photo of the Cloth Hall, Ypres.

While visiting the Passchendale museum (where some of the worst fighting took place 1917) I read a book on the Second Battle of Ypres (1915). I saw that Charles died on 25 April 1915 and according to the records the only real fighting taking place then was the (sub-)battle of Saint Julien, a village NE of Ypres, which lasted from 24 April - 4 May 1915. It was an attempt to recapture the village of Saint Julien taken the previous day by the Germans, who for the first time in the war had used chlorine gas. It killed many Canadians who had been defending the village.


Charles Bell was part of the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers, who made up part of the 27 Division, manning the front line more or less east of Ypres and south of St. Julien. On the 25 April they made the counter-attack. All eye-witness reports I read in the book spoke of the "air being filled with machine gun fire - bullets flying everywhere". They didn't manage to retake the village but pushed the front line closer to it. Charles himself fell, apparently (so my family was told) shot in the stomach - probably by machine gun fire. Due to the hell of the situation, no-one was able to rescue him. He lay there for several hours, and bled to death - on Flanders' Fields. Due to the utter destruction caused, his body was never recovered. But Charles, we have your name. And your memory lives on in me. I will never forget.

Here is his name on the Menin Gate.


Here is a tribute to him in the Tyne Cot museum (mainly commemorating the battle for Passchendale).

Passchendale Museum

Here is the poem In Flanders Fields by John McCain