Centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele.

This morning I was watching all the remembrance coverage from Passchendaele as the battle was 100 years ago today, the bloodiest battle in the bloodiest war, I found it all quite moving.  Prince Charles was there, and Kate and William and Theresa May, they all laid wreaths.  Quite a few descendants of those who fought participated in the service, reading extracts from letters the soldiers had sent to their families, I wondered if my great, great grandfather had been there.

Miscellaneous facts

Officially known as the Third Battle of Ypres  (it's not correct but is usually pronounced over here  -with tongue in cheek - as "Wipers"

The offensive was planned because the British commander, Gen. Haig wanted to destroy German submarine bases on the Belgian north east coast.

The Prime Minister David Lloyd George disapproved of the plan.  In his War Memoirs, published in 1938, he wrote: "Passchendaele was indeed one of the greatest disasters of the war ... No soldier of any intelligence now defends this senseless campaign".

90,000 bodies were never identified.  42,000 never recovered.

An estimated 4 1/4 million shells were fired.

The Last Post ceremony has taken place every evening at the Menin Gate memorial in Ypres since 1928.

That was all this morning - this afternoon I went to a lovely concert, followed by tea and cake, at St Andrews.   There is a series of events during August for people who can't afford to go on holiday, and this was the first one.

They were all classical pieces, I wish they had produced a programme.  I suppose I could have made notes, but didn't think of it in time.   It was given by two very accomplished professional pianists, Robert and Linda Stoodley.  Robert had at one time been an organist at St Andrews.  I had been looking forward to the event because I remembered them from last year.   As I say, it was lovely.