Kemmel Ring

Froudy · 05-25-2011, 04:37 PM

Hello. This is my first post on here after finding the site so I hope it's in the right place.

This is a bit of a long story so you'll have to be patient.....
Back in the 1970's as a young lad I used to got out shooting rabbits and pigeons with my air rifle. One of the places I used to go was an old Bristol Waterworks site in Frampton Cotterell near Bristol in the UK.
The site was full of old mine shafts and when they decided to develope it they started tipping rubble and other "Rubbish" there. I happened to be over there in the Winter and saw that a fresh tip of rubbish had been dumped.
I, being inquisitive had a look through some of it and it soon became obvious that it was from a house clearance. To cut a long story short I found jewellery, medals and a treasure trove of other bits and bobs. The majority of the find was sold at a Bristol antiques market and raised if my memory serves me correctly approx £400, which as you'll agree to a young lad in the 70's was a small fortune.

One item that for some reason I kept was this aluminium ring with the Belgian and French flag and the word Kemmel cut into a piece of copper on it. I guessed that it was something that had been home made and probably related to one of the World Wars.
I often wondered "Who this chap" called Kemmel was until the other night at work I was reading "Warriors", British Fighting Heroes by Ross Kemp.
I got to the chapter about Captain Noel Chavasse who served in WW1 with the RAMC attached to 10th (Scottish) Battalion The King's (Liverpool Regiment) a territorial unit known as "The Liverpool Scottish".
In one of his letters to his father he mentions his shock at the total devastation of the town of Kemmel.

The mention of the name Kemmel reminded me of the ring that I had found almost 40 years ago. As soon as I got home from work in the morning I got the ring from it's box where it had lain untouched for many years. I realised at last that I was holding a very small piece of history and felt rather emotional to have finally found out the significance of the word...Kemmel

Sorry if I've rambled on a bit, but I was so excited to find out at last what I had discovered.

**GEORGE** · 05-25-2011, 05:32 PM

that shouts history at me, great trench art at its best in my opinion. george w

**NickW** · 05-25-2011, 05:38 PM

Kemmel is a village about six miles south-west of Ypres - I have a shell case with it on too - Apart from its wartime significance, I believe it was the base for the British post war graves registration unit, as my shell case is dated 1919. I have stayed there many times on the campsite and on a recent visit they have uncovered some WW1 fortifications near the campsite - I belived it was originally the entrance to a large underground system that is no longer accessible.

Very nicely executed WW1 Trench Art ring, very nice find.