the Ring of Memory, a tribute to the soldiers who fell in Nord-Pas-de-Calais

“My great-uncle was a cheerful young man, a bugle sailor, a fitter by trade, broke at almost 26 years old…” The Lille resident Benoît Guittet has the feeling of a duty accomplished, “for family memory and for great History”since the name of his great-uncle, Prosper Roiné, now appears on the Ring of Memory, at Notre-Dame de-Lorette (Ablain-Saint-Nazaire, Pas-de-Calais) alongside 15 other soldiers recently identified.

Including five other sailors who died like Prosper Roiné on December 8, 1917, during the explosion of the destroyer Le Bouclier, off the coast of Boulogne-sur-Mer: Vincent Coriton, Georges Lengronne, Noël Le Roy, Édouard Montagné and Pierre- Marie Riou.

Nearly 580,000 names registered

Inaugurated on November 11, 2014, the Ring of Memory honors the soldiers from all countries who fell in the territory of Nord-Pas-de-Calais between 1914 and 1918. Nearly 580,000 soldiers' names are inscribed there in alphabetical order, without distinction of religion or nationality. There are British, the largest contingent, Germans, French, Canadians, Australians, Indians, New Zealanders, Belgians, Portuguese, South Africans and even Russians, mostly prisoners of war of the German army.

Designed by the architect Philippe Prost, the ring is made up of 500 steel plates arranged in a large circle in the heart of the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette necropolis: one part is raised, as if poised in balance, a symbol of a fragile peace. It is one of the three sites that make up this Memorial, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2023, alongside 138 other memorial and funerary sites from the Western Front of the Great War.

The 500^e plate, the “plaque of the forgotten” originally left blank, accommodates the names of recently identified soldiers. A first series of fourteen names had already been added on November 11, 2018. “I remember with emotion the great-grandson of a German soldier whose name had just been inscribed and who burst into tears in my arms…”says Mady Dorchies, regional councilor for Hauts-de-France, delegated with the duty of memory.

The elected official expects to relive a strong moment with the honoring of these sixteen new identified soldiers, on “ this place of peaceful memory » which attracts some 200,000 visitors per year. “These names come back to us thanks to the families of the soldiers or historians, many having worked on the Great War on the occasion of the centenary commemorations”continues Mady Dorchies. Each new name is verified with the services concerned, in particular the Ministry of the Armed Forces, via the French Deaths of the First World War database (1).

French, German, Polish, English

Simply declared “died at sea” on the death register for France, Prosper Roiné could not appear on the Ring of Memory which only lists soldiers who died in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais. After several years of research, Benoît Guittet, a “Sunday historian” who spent years reconstructing the family history, was able to modify the record of his great-uncle in the register, now declared “died off the coast of Boulogne-sur-Mer”like his other companions in misfortune. Benoît Guittet will be present at the ceremony on November 11 with his son and granddaughter, happy to see this come to fruition. “memory work”.

In addition to the six French sailors, ten other soldiers were therefore identified: five French, three Germans, a Pole and a British. “All these soldiers deserve to have their history remembered…”underlines Mady Dorchies. Engraved with the typography “The Lorette”, specially created for the Ring of Memory, their names now sit alongside those of John Kipling, the son of the poet Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Standing Buffalo, grandson of the Indian chief Sitting Bull and even the of the youngest German soldier engaged in the conflict, Paul Mauk. A non-exhaustive list that could still grow.