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[Page 84]
Erquinghem
5/6/16
"Le 4 Decembre 1906.A L'Age de 52 ans R.I.P."
There are some good stone monuments of the conventional style we know at home and there is one portion entirely devoted to them. The recent dates on all these graves inclines one to the belief that the churchyard is used over and over again and graves dug up and other people buried there after a few years. Another portion is sold off for soldiers and there are a good many buried there. Various beds close together.
The grave digger (a Tommy says "I allers keeps a few ready dug and then I'as something to come and go on. I allers likes to have a few ready dug on hand and there, any corpses come down I've allers got a couple of neat graves all ready & waiting up me sleeve so to speak".
Inside the church everything is very clean & neat. In the chancel are statues of Jean d'Arc and St. Michael and a few processional banners. Just outside is a Calvary the rear wall of which has been painted to represent the walls and city of Jerusalem. I asked the sacristan how old the church was and he fired off in answer a jumble of "sanks" & "kattrs" that might be anything.
On the canalised River Lys are good clean lighter barges on which people live a nautical existence up and down the canals.
A cold rain windy night.
6/6/16
The Coy is on day fatigue now and they were all away early. Heavy showers if rain and a bitter wind continued up until noon. Paid the men after lunch and spent the rest of the day knocking round very quietly and later in the afternoon was called up to the Colonel for an opinion of a trench raid scheme. Raised a number of points in the proposed plan of action.