BERT McKenzie was just eight days old when his father died at the Battle of Ypres on October 8, 1917.
Since then he has only had stories, and a clipping from the Bury Times, to remember him by.
But today, Mr McKenzie, now a frail 91-year-old and a war hero in his own right, will set off on a journey which will bring him closer to his father than ever before.
For he will embark on an emotional pilgrimage to Belgium to visit his war grave.
The exact whereabouts of the grave was discovered by Mr McKenzie’s nephew.
This week as he prepared to make the poignant four-day journey, the frail pensioner said: “Although my health hasn’t been too good, I made up my mind to go. I want to visit my father’s grave and I know I’ll be upset when I get there. It will be quite traumatic.”
Throughout his life, the Second World War veteran had been unaware of where his father was buried.
But the breakthrough came when Mr McKenzie’s nephew, Michael Deakin, carried out research online and located the war grave. He now has a photograph of his father’s inscribed gravestone which was given to him by his nephew.
“I never dreamt it was possible to locate graves via a computer. I was so surprised, given it was so many years ago. It just shows what modern technology can achieve,” said Mr McKenzie.
Mr McKenzie has no family photographs of his father who died at the age of 31 while serving with the Royal West Sussex Regiment.
The only picture he possesses is a precious photocopy of an obituary printed in the Bury Times featuring a small photograph and report of the death.
War records now in Mr McKenzie’s possession disclose that his dad enlisted in the Queen’s Regiment in July, 1916 and that he arrived in France in February, 1917.
“I know my father died from shell fire, so I’m sure it was instantaneous and that he did not suffer.”
Private Herbert McKenzie was buried at the Poperinghe military cemetery in West Vlaanderen, Belgium, near the Ypres battlefield.
“It is only now that I really appreciate what he did,” added father-of-two Mr McKenzie, of Bury.
“I grew up without my father and did not have to go through any grieving process. What happened to him is just a distant memory. But now I’m very anxious to visit his grave.”
Mr McKenzie who served with the Royal Army Service Corp during the Second World War, will undertake an organised war graves tour of Egypt and Italy next year, accompanied by a carer after being awarded a grant of £2,825 from the Big Lottery Fund.
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