61165: Area where William Binning was wounded

William Binning was wounded by the railway station in a small village called Le Touquet which straddles the Belgian-French border north of Armentieres. Amazingly although there is no railway line or station there any more you can still see exactly where the railway and station would have been. When I found the area first it was derelict but over the last year it has been turned into a park, with seats and places to play boules. Nearby is a British Military Cemetery, Tancrez Farm, where William records in his diary that he was involved in a burial party for a soldier in his section who was shot accidentally. Exactly one week after that burial William would be fatally wounded a few hundred yards from that grave. Also nearby is a farm complex called Grande Rabeque. This was referred to frequently in William's diary as the place they rested in when not in the front line. So the major land marks of William's short experience of war can still be seen and visited today.

2nd Lieutenant William B. Binning (1896 - 1916), Scottish Rifles 9th Div. Machine Gun Corps, 28th Bn.