Patrick Joseph Bugden VC

| November 7, 2022

Polygon Wood, Zonnebeke, Belgium: Action of 28 September 1917 THY WILL BE DONE NOT MINE For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty when on two occasions our advance was temporarily held up by strongly defended “pill-boxes”. Pte. Bugden, in the face of devastating fire from machine guns, gallantly led small parties to attack these […]

Are there Poppy Blooms in France and Flanders?

| March 31, 2020

I wonder… Each night I walk. A steady jaunt through the neighbourhood, choosing to walk when fewer people are about…there is less risk that way. As I walk the road the 7 PM salute to our first responders builds. I watch as one curious robin hops across a lawn, his ear openings wizened to these […]

…and now we have been

| August 19, 2018

Thread Fourteen …and now we have been…and we have returned. The landscapes of France and Flanders…London…have offered of themselves…their connections to us. We have rediscovered, found, observed and, above all, we have become connected. In finding the threads between the thimbles and needles we have bore witness the fabric of history…perhaps patchwork…but ours for all […]

O Poppy My Poppy!

| May 1, 2015

“O the bleeding drops of red”* Here we are – near to 100 years ago – 3 May 1915 – since Canadian soldier, officer, doctor John McCrae penned, “In Flanders Fields”. McCrae’s reflections upon the loss of fellow soldier and friend, Alexis Helmer, are a personal witness to war that placed within the grasp of […]