When the 21 yr old Hubert Rochereau was killed on the battlefield of Flanders in World War One ....
..... his grieving parents, like many others at that time, turned his bedroom into an impromptu shrine.
He was a French officer with the 15th Dragoons Regiment, and was unlucky to be killed in one of the last battles of that first World War. These family shrines rarely lasted longer than the lifetime of the grieving parents, or occasionally the wife ..... so the fact that Monsieur Rochereau's shrine has survived a century until now, untouched in any substantial manner, is something of a rarity.
The contents are like a time capsule of 1914-1918:
Rather poignantly, the only other addition to his room, is a small bottle of soil from the Belgian field where he died, and his personal military possessions are still laid out on his desk: two guns, two knives, an opium pipe, there's even a metal tub of English cigarettes sitting amongst them.
This sad little reminder of a time when many families all over Europe (and the rest of the world), will have had very similar little shrines, has only survived because successive owners of the house, and therefore custodians of this room, have kept the tradition alive. This is because a contract was written into the deeds of this old French manor house by his grieving parents, stipulating that its future owners keep Hubert's room as it was and is, for 500 years.
The years haven't been kind to many of the contents for the first 100 of those 500 years. His jacket for example has been attacked by rot, and rodents, but much of the other items are still pretty much as they were.
When I read the story, I felt it was rather a sad little tale, but now I think its possibly done exactly what the parents hoped for, and spread his name to a wider audience. So as long as the Internet exists, then a good search engine will keep his story and name alive, for possibly far longer than the 500 years his parents planned for.
I hope the room, and its contents are conserved by a local museum in situ, to prevent further decay ....
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| Hubert Rochereau - A Brave Young Soldier |
..... his grieving parents, like many others at that time, turned his bedroom into an impromptu shrine.
He was a French officer with the 15th Dragoons Regiment, and was unlucky to be killed in one of the last battles of that first World War. These family shrines rarely lasted longer than the lifetime of the grieving parents, or occasionally the wife ..... so the fact that Monsieur Rochereau's shrine has survived a century until now, untouched in any substantial manner, is something of a rarity.
The contents are like a time capsule of 1914-1918:
- A bookshelf with his school textbooks including a schoolboy's book of grammar, and propped on his pillow,
- Some memorial photo-cards show the young faces of him and his fallen comrades.
Rather poignantly, the only other addition to his room, is a small bottle of soil from the Belgian field where he died, and his personal military possessions are still laid out on his desk: two guns, two knives, an opium pipe, there's even a metal tub of English cigarettes sitting amongst them.
 |
| Hubert Rochereau - A Room Memorial |
This sad little reminder of a time when many families all over Europe (and the rest of the world), will have had very similar little shrines, has only survived because successive owners of the house, and therefore custodians of this room, have kept the tradition alive. This is because a contract was written into the deeds of this old French manor house by his grieving parents, stipulating that its future owners keep Hubert's room as it was and is, for 500 years.
The years haven't been kind to many of the contents for the first 100 of those 500 years. His jacket for example has been attacked by rot, and rodents, but much of the other items are still pretty much as they were.
When I read the story, I felt it was rather a sad little tale, but now I think its possibly done exactly what the parents hoped for, and spread his name to a wider audience. So as long as the Internet exists, then a good search engine will keep his story and name alive, for possibly far longer than the 500 years his parents planned for.
I hope the room, and its contents are conserved by a local museum in situ, to prevent further decay ....
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