Stage 3 : The british officer

Now head to Rue Jeanne d'Harcourt to meet our next character !
Admire the typical Art Deco facade of the Marché before turning left onto Delair street. Have you noticed this magnificent lion head ? Continue and take the first street on the right until you come to a beautiful fresco depicting the Virgin from our basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebières. Do you know its history ? It was bombed during the Great War, and its Virgin remained leaning horizontally for a very long time. All the british stationned in Albert, who were religious about death, said, "When the Virgin falls, the war will end!" This was indeed the case, as it fell in 1918 ! It's a lovely photo to take with the basilica painted on the fresco and the new basilica, rebuilt identically just behind it!

Right in front of this moving fresco, you can see our third statue , the british officer !

Officers didn't have the easiest role either. They were often on the front lines, sharing the dangers with their soldiers. Yet they had to make strategic decisions under extremely difficult conditions. they needed a strong ability to boost the troops morale and demonstrate humanity in times of crisis. 

This was the case with Captain Neville, buried in Carnoy-Mametz!

English soldiers were madly fond of sports, and on July 1st 1916, an unprecedented incident took place : infantrymen launched an assault by kicking foot balls!

An episode as crazy and incredible as this story can be !

Captain Neville improvised a football game in the middle of the war, encouraging his troops, whose morale was at rock bottom, to leave the trenches and kick the ball into the German trench!

"The cannons will have done all the work. You won't need your rifles, the germans will be dead", the soldiers are sworn to.

But the captain knows that it's wrong : night patrols have shown that the enemy trenches are intact.

To boost his men's morale in the face of the machine guns, he gives them balls. One reads : "Grand European Final", "East Surreys versus Bavarians", and another : "No referee".

Captain Neville set an example by kicking a ball, and he died, like many of his comrades. His men conquered the german trenches and brought back their balls, precious relics hailed after the battle. The press made him a hero, the embodiment of british sportsmanship. Today, many sports clubs come to pay tribute to him at his grave, 10 minutes away from Albert, by placing scraves of foot balls.