The Linfield Boys Academy Under 15 squad will be travelling to Belgium and France this weekend to participate in a youth tournament and to commemorate those who lost their lives in Flanders and at the Somme during the First World War.
The group leave early on Friday morning and will tour the Flanders region before participating in the Menin Gate Remembrance ceremony on Friday evening. They will then travel to their base in Arras ahead of the three-team Somme Memorial youth tournament on Saturday. Linfield U-15s will be joined by teams from Leyton Orient and USOAA from Albert in France.
On Sunday the group will visit a number of memorials in the Somme region including the Theipval Memorial to the Missing. The Linfield party will join up with the Leyton Orient group to visit their Footballers’ Battalion Memorial at Flers before travelling to our own Memorial to the Linfield Fallen in the village of Bertrancourt. The 2024 visit will conclude on Monday with a visit to the Ulster Memorial Tower and a tour of Thiepval wood before the group returns to Belfast.
This is the latest in a series of Academy visits to the Flanders and Somme regions as the club develops this important sporting and educational project for our young players. This visit is particularly significant as we mark two years since the Linfield Memorial in Bertrancourt was unveiled and dedicated and also take forward a new partnership with Leyton Orient FC and the O’s Memorial Group.
The Linfield group will be led by Chairman Roy McGivern along with Directors Ronnie Morrison and David Sales, Vice Presidents Robert Foster and Robert Neill and Academy coach Jonny Jameson who designed the club’s Somme Memorial. Academy Director Glenn Ferguson and Media and Marketing Officer Matt Wright will also attend along with former players Lee Doherty and William Murphy. A number of supporters will also join the official party, many of whom were donors to the Memorial Fund project. The group will be facilitated by Philip Hamilton from the 36th Ulster Division Battlefield Tours.
Lest we Forget