Following GP 90 this August, Mike Clarke, Chairman of Debden Branch, Essex RBL, reported that his neighbour James Lloyd, plus close friend John Archer, cycled some 80 kilometres in a private pilgrimage tour of the battlefields and several allied cemeteries around Ypres, Belgium.

They completed the pilgrimage in order to commemorate the fallen on the centenary of the armistice, proudly wearing their RBL cycling jerseys.

En route they cycled by the Menin Gate, Tyne Cot Cemetery, the Christmas Truce Memorial and Ploegsteert ("Plugstreet"). They are pictured here by the 49 Division Memorial at Essex Farm Cemetery, where they paid their respects to the Essex lads that fell during the First World War.

After visiting Essex Farm Cemetery and the other CWGC Cemeteries around Ypres, James Lloyd summed up their cycling pilgrimage with the following words, "It was humbling to visit the war graves in Flanders and it brought home the sacrifices these people made."

"I don’t know how many Essex Regiment men are buried at Essex Farm, all I can say is it’s too many!”