Man's cycle ride honours great-grandfather in WW1

A man is to take on a 320-mile cycle ride from Worcester to Belgium in honour of his great-grandfather, who fought in a pivotal World War One battle.

Russ Walker will be supported by about 20 other cyclists as he goes to the Belgian village of Gheluvelt, which is today marked on maps as Geluveld, which was the scene of a clash won by 300 people from Worcestershire in 1914.

Men from the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment saved the city of Ypres in Belgium from capture.

Mr Walker, from Worcester, whose great-grandfather, Sgt Joseph Garner, was involved, will begin the four-day journey at Gheluvelt Park in the city, which was named after the battle, on 26 June.

More than 300 men charged through open fields during the Battle in Gheluvelt on 31 October 1914 before the Germans retreated.

The Worcestershire Regiment was the last available reserve of the British defence and fought against the Germans alone, leaving 187 men from the county wounded or dead.

Mr Walker said: "When I look at the footage... it's quite unbelievable, and the sacrifice they made and what they went through as soldiers, I don't think we can comprehend fully.

"But it makes me extremely proud that he was one of those soldiers, and I'm here today for that reason."

He will embark on the ride to honour his great-grandfather and the men from the 2nd Battalion.

The Mercian Regiment Museum collects and displays artefacts and documents relating to the Worcestershire Regiment, its antecedents and its successors.

Explaining why the park has the same name as the village, the museum's Lt Col Mark Jackson said: "At the end of the First World War, when many other people were building memorials across Flanders and other places the British Army went to, the people of Worcestershire said, 'No, we'd like to build our memorial in our city'.

"So Gheluvelt Park is Worcester's war memorial and it's used every day."

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