During the First World War my Grandfather Edmund Adams was killed in the Flanders area and although his body was never found he is commemorated on this memorial near the small town of Ploegsteert which is on the France Belgium border.
The memorial is "Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing and Berks Corner Cemetery Extension"
It is a circular temple with pillars guarded by two lions, one snarling in defiance whilst the other gazes serenely into the distance. .jpg)
The memorial contains names from those missing from the battles of Armentieres, Aubers Ridge 1914, Loos, Fromelles 1915, Estaires 1916, Hazebrouck, Scherpenberg, and Outtersteene Ridge 1818, in all 11,447 men, are listed on the panels within the colonnade. Over 380 men also lie in the adjoining cemetery.
We also visited Tyne Cot Cemetery close to Ieper where another family member is commemorated, and it too is just a sea of almost 12,000 white Portland Stone memorials.
The McLarens
Our family has been based in the Dundee/Forfar area of Scotland since at least the mid 1700s, they were mostly farm workers and places like Tealing, Monikie, Inverarity and Kingsmuir figure highly. In more recent times we were based in the Perth area, but if the names the same we may have the same ancestors. Get in touch.
More about the history
Cook
My wife's family came under this surname, first from the south west of England then Fife. One member of the family served on the HMS Warspite during WW 1
For the past few years I have been researching the family name of McLaren, it all started when through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission we traced the memorial to my grandfather. Edmund Adams died in the First World War and is commemorated near Yeper in Belgium. I now have quite a few hundred family members listed back to about 1745. If you're a McLaren, Cook, Rae, or Adams get in touch, we may be related.
