Lawrence was the cousin of my grandmother, Nora Atkinson. She was immensely proud of Lawrence and his efforts to protect our country. "Lawrie" as he was better known to my grandmother and his family, served for the 1st/1st Warwick Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, and sacrificed his life at the tender age of 23 at the Battle of the Somme.

My grandmother spent a huge amount of time writing to the Commonwealth Graves Commission to find out all of this information in the 1980s - before I was born. Though she passed away last year, I have photographs of Lawrence, a letter from one of his comrades, and even the buttons from his uniform. As his eighteen year old great great cousin in 2015, I will cherish these sentiments forever and I plan to visit Trios Arbres Cemetery next November.

To Lawrence and servicemen past and present who gave us the gift of life at the expense of theirs, we can never be too thankful. Your bravery, dignity and integrity echoes from the heavens, and through the generations that proceed you.

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them

She wrote to the British Legion in the 1980s

Abbie Pennell