HiJenx

Commonwealth War Graves

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The reason we actually went to Italy last summer is that Chris’s father wanted to visit his father’s grave one final time with his whole family. Chris’s grandfather died in Northern Italy on December 6th, 1944. He was called John Jenkins. He was 27 at the time of his death. He was buried in the small town of Faenza. After spending the morning in Bologna, Chris and I took a train to Faenza while Chris’s sister, her partner and Chris’s parents took the rental car.

We arrived at the cemetery in early afternoon. All over Europe, there are cemeteries dedicated to fallen foreign troops from both world wars. This one is run by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. According to Wikipedia, they maintain 2,500 cemeteries around the world. They are financially supported by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa. These are all commonwealth nations, that is, nations that were part of the British Empire.
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Here is a video of both our experience with Italian trains and the visit to the grave site itself:

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