eventually returned to England, married and had several children. One of those children was Frederick Vardy.
Fred was just twenty when he enlisted and was sent to France in September 1916. He had been a framework knitter, as was the Vardy tradition but life in the army was a world away from his life in Nottingham where he used to drink a pint or two or sometimes three at his favourite pub, the oldest pub in England in fact “Ye Old Trip to Jerusalem” with his mates.
Fred died on the seventh of June 1917 at the Battle of Messines. It has been argued that the Battle of Messines was the most successful local operation of the war, certainly of the Western Front. Carried out by General Herbert Plummer Second Army, it was launched on 7 June 1917 with the detonation of nineteen underground mines underneath the German mines. There were sixteen thousand British killed in the Battle of Messines; one of them was Fred Vardy. He has no known grave.
Steve discussed it with his wife, Brenda, and his daughter, Sarah, and it was decided that his sixtieth birthday would be celebrated by Steve going on a battlefield tour to learn more about his Great Uncle and the Great War.
Massachusetts U.S.A. 2012
Mike Hansen lives in Sudbury, Massachusetts about twenty miles outside Boston. It is a beautiful leafy suburb with many historic homes similar to the one where Mike’s wife and he live, at Widow’s Rites Lane. He has his own recruitment company and has been very successful with it for many years. He has been considering a very lucrative offer to sell to a competitor and retire and do a bit of travelling, play golf and some fishing. A keen amateur historian, he has spent many an hour researching the American Civil War and the American War of Independence. Recently he took an interest in World War One and the USA’s late involvement.
He knew he had an Uncle who had fought in the war but he was not sure where and when. He decided to do some research and found that his Great Uncle, William Hansen, had been conscripted in 1917 and had been sent to France and took part in the battle of Belleau Wood which was critical to the Aisne Offensive. Mike also discovered that William had died in that battle, along with nearly two thousand of his compatriots.
The decision was made that he would register for the “Back-Roads Touring” tour. He e-mailed the company and requested a registration form, which Mandy organised to send to him. Mike’s wife, Loretta, decided that she would stay at home and look after their cats. She didn’t really like flying anyway. Mike completed the form and transferred the money.
Christchurch New Zealand 2012
The second last person to register for the tour was, Grant McKenzie, a New Zealander from the South Island. Grant owns an Apple computer store in Christchurch. It is a very successful business and sales have been strong, particularly since the iPod came onto the market and then the iPhone and the iPad. Grant is a very patriotic New Zealander who reveres the ANZAC spirit. The All Blacks and any team who beats Australia in any sport. Grant, being a single man, although married three times, did not need to consult anybody before he decided to register for the tour.
Grant’s Grandfather, Athol McKenzie, was raised in Canterbury on the South Island, on his Mother and Father’s dairy farm. The size of their herd was one hundred Friesians. This was above average for the Canterbury area in the early 1900’s. They no longer hand milked the herd but used a vacuum based milking machine.
Life was hard on the farm but very satisfying. Young Athol helped with the milking in the morning, having got up at 5am; he then had breakfast and prepared for school. After school he had an hour to play, before it was time again to round up the herd and milk the cows again. After dinner it was homework and then off to bed.
Athol had two sisters, Susan and Claire who also helped around the farm and had a similar regime to Athol. Athol took a keen interest in what was happening in Europe although by the time the news reached Canterbury, it was pretty old. There had been recruitment marches all over New Zealand and on the 21st of February, 1916, they came to Ashburton after they recruited five hundred lads in Christchurch.
Athol joined up on the day and then returned to the farm to break the news to his family. Needless to say, they were upset that their son and brother was going to march off to war. Athol’s mother and father were also concerned at losing Athol from the farm.
Athol sailed to England on the 30th of May, 1916. He had read a lot about England when he was at school and it had intrigued him. The thought of spending some time in the mother country excited him. He was hoping to visit London and see all its sites, however this was not the case. He was dispatched to a training facility called Sling Camp in Wiltshire. Athol completed training in six weeks as a rifleman and was assigned to the 4th Battalion. In May 1917 he was sent to France where he joined his Kiwi and Australian comrades in arms; little did he know that he would take part in one of the most intense battles on the Western Front.
Athol partook in the battles of the Somme and Passchendaele, two major battles with great loss of life, including 15000 New Zealand casualties; 5000 killed at Passchendaele and 6000 casualties and 2000 killed at the Somme. New Zealand was second only to Serbia in the percentage of soldiers killed and missing in action. Athol survived both these horrendous battles, only to die seven days before the war ended at the attack on Le Quesnoy.
Whistler, British Columbia, Canada 2012
The final person to register for the tour was Philippe Bellepoire; he owned ski shops in Whistler and Blackcomb and a restaurant in Vancouver. He was a wealthy bachelor who competed in the slalom at the winter Olympics in 2002 at Salt Lake City where he came fourth. He lived at Whistler in the winter and Vancouver in the summer. Life was good for Philippe.
He had never been married but always had a beautiful girl friend on his arm. Whenever the relationship reached the stage where marriage was mentioned or intimated, Philippe quickly ended it and went looking for the next one. He certainly didn’t have to look far as he was in demand.
Philippe was very proud of his French heritage, his Great Grandfather immigrated to Quebec in 1875. His name was Henri Bellepoire and he was a wine maker from the region of Bordeaux. He decided that France was losing its way and better opportunities were “out there” somewhere. He chose Canada because Quebec was French-speaking and the way of life would better suit him, rather than the other options of America or Australia.
He established a small vineyard, growing cool climate wines from grapes such as Labrusca and V. Riparia. He worked hard and after ten years started to turn a healthy profit. He expanded the vineyard and introduced other grape varieties. By 1900, he had built a beautiful home on the property he called Chateau Bellepoire where he had a work force of more than fifteen.
In 1901 the temperance movement won their battle and prohibition was introduced to Canada. That was the end of Henri’s business, as he knew it. Rather than roll over and die Henri continued to press grapes for grape juice and to supply grapes for dried fruit production. He also started to press apples for apple juice and by 1920, his business, although not as profitable as wine production, was making a reasonable profit. He was able to keep the property and the big house on the hill.
Henri married Antoinette in 1890 and they had three children two boys and a girl. The first-born was Nicholas, the second was Antoine and the third child was Anne.
The children worked on the property part-time while they were at school, Nicholas was the son who was keen to take over the business when his father retired: young Antoine was always the rebel and had no interest in the business. His sister, Anne, had always wanted to
