Bike trek pays tribute to our brave soldiers

Crusaders, a group of motorcyclists who support military charities, took mementos on behalf of living relatives of soldiers whose graves or memorials are close to the battlefields.

Months of speed restrictions and lane closures to be enforced on M1 in Yorkshire to install new noise barriersThe group took part in the Royal British Legion’s Great Pilgrimage 90 Parade and One Hundred Days Ceremony, which visited battlefields of the Somme and Ypres before marching on to the Menin Gate.

Crusaders chairman Brett Muscroft said: “It is incredible to consider the scale of the cemeteries and think of all the people who died so we could live the way we do today.

“It fills us with such pride that people got in touch and asked us to pay tribute to their relatives. I’m glad we could take photographs of the graves back home to people so they have a proper picture of what it looked like.

‘Selfish and stupid’ vandals blamed for numerous fires at beauty spot“You think of what these soldiers went through and it’s so important to not forget everything they have done for us.”

The group paid tribute to soldiers Harold Arthur Lowthorpe at Cabaret-Rouge cemetery at Souchez near to Arras, James Wilby at Boumena Hammalle cemetery in Albert, Lineal Robson Warburton and Marmerduk Flower at Pozieres cemetery, and George Thomas Wadington at Bucquoy Road cemetery.

Former soldier Mr Muscroft said the project was to help family members who may not be able to travel to the war cemeteries to have a way to pay their own respects.

The parade in Ypres, which the group joined, followed the same path as a march for families and veterans that took place in 1928, a decade after the end of the First World War.

Mr Muscroft said the Crusaders was a way for like-minded people to combine a love of motorbikes with their passion for supporting members of the armed forces, both past and present.