The First & Last of the Great War

In this week of remembrance, I discovered a poignant fact that gave me goosebumps. At 9:30 am, 90 minutes before the armistice, Private George Edwin Ellison was shot dead by a sniper - the last British soldier to be killed on the Western Front. He was killed only a couple of miles away from where the first British soldier was believed to have fallen. The exact circumstances of the death of 17 year old Private John Henry Parr is unclear, but it seems he was killed on the eve of the Battle of Mons in August 1914. 

Both soldiers are buried in St Symphorien military cemetery, on the outskirts of Mons, opposite each other. There was no knowledge at the time, of the significance of the positions of their final resting places. But, these two men are separated metaphorically by the deaths of 750,000 fellow British serviceman.