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Relative receives photos of uncles' Somme graves
Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 02:48 PM    
08 July 2006
A Dunmurry man is being sent pictures of the memorials to his two uncles who died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916.

Edward Cairns had requested the pictures after reading a Belfast Telegraph story about the visit of a Royal British Legion group from Northern Ireland to the 90th anniversary commemorations at the Somme last weekend.

His daughter Mrs Karen McHugh from Wigan, contacted the War Graves Commission who passed on the location of the memorials for Sergeant Thomas James Cairns and his brother Corporal Edward Cairns.

She also phoned Bill Craig, the organiser of the Royal British Legion tour, and he gladly agreed to help obtain photographs during the trip.

He said: "It is important that people are remembered in this way."

Edward Cairns was buried at the Mill Road cemetery, near the Ulster Tower at Thiepval, but the body of his brother Thomas was never found.

However his name, among with the other 73,000 soldiers listed as missing, is displayed at the massive Thiepval Memorial nearby, where Prince Charles led the main Somme commemoration last Saturday.

During the weekend Bill Craig, with the help of the Belfast Telegraph, was able to locate the names on the memorials and pictures were taken for the Cairns family.

Mr Craig said: "I am glad that we were able to help Mr Cairns and his family."

When told of the successful mission, Edward, now 83, said: "I was never able to go to the Somme to see the memorials for myself, but I am very grateful to Mr Craig and the Belfast Telegraph for obtaining the pictures for our family."

During the weekend, the Royal British Legion group also visited a number of other cemeteries in the Somme area.

Wreaths were laid by relatives in the group, and Remembrance Services were led by the Reverend Alan Knox, a former RAF padre and retired Presbyterian minister.

Royal British Legion standard-bearers were in attendance, and the Exhortations were spoken by Mr John Dumigan, the Northern Ireland chairman.

www.belfasttelegraph.c...ory=697879