“All the books in the 'In Continuing & Grateful Memory'
series are the result of what must have been a huge amount of research and so provide amazing detail of a selection of soldiers buried in a variety of cemeteries. The Menin Gate volumes give accounts of approximately 1500 soldiers whose names are on the memorial. The Ploegsteert volume lists hundreds of soldiers who are buried in a selection of twelve cemeteries plus names on the Ploegsteert Memorial itself (in addition there is a tour described of the most important sites in the Ploegsteert sector).
The latest volume, "Ypres to Zillebeke via Hooge" continues in the same format but now has a lot more of the illustrations in colour along with a large selection of very useful and informative maps of actions that occurred around particular sites mentioned in the book.
In all books, for each soldier, the author gives the regiment/battalion they fought with, their service number, the grave reference number (as well as the cemetery plan itself!), medals, if any, awarded (including citations for Victoria Cross recipients and other medals awarded for acts of bravery) and in most cases a photograph of the soldier which adds a greater sense of connection with a particular casualty. In addition the maps give the reader/visitor a sense of what occurred around a particular site rather than just a landscape.
I have found these books incredibly useful in providing a real focus for battlefield trips that I take for students in my school. Rather than just standing in a cemetery and looking, we can focus on a few headstones and think about a very personal perspective of soldiers who died in the conflict. I now am able, with the help of these books, to give the students a tour around the Menin Gate focussing on about 15 to 20 names, and this gives the students a fascinating insight into a cross section of soldiers, some very famous names, who fought and died in the Great War.
These books provide a superb reference library which is in constant use and provides an almost limitless collection of information about soldiers who died in the Great War. I cannot recommend these volumes highly enough, especially the latest which has a lot of refinements of the previous volumes. They are useful not only for my personal battlefield trips but for the trips I take school students on. Before I had these books to hand some of the sites on school trips didn't really have a proper focus but now a lot of the sites we visit are brought to life with a fascinating selection of well-researched information."