25/07/2016
Very emotional day yesterday at Flers village in the Somme where Orient have a memorial to the battle of 1916 where 3 Orient players gave the ultimate sacrifice.
Four coaches and plenty of cars brought about 250 Orient supporters and friends of the club for a 3 day trip to visit cemetaries of the fallen.
I'd like to say a big thank you to all our guests here at Clubhouse Gites who contributed to our collection for the upkeep of the memorial. It is our pleasure to announce that we collected 500 euros and this was gratefully received when we presented it to Steve Jenkins of the supporters club as the person who organises these trips to the Somme and will make sure it goes to very good use.
It was good to see many locals from the village who had their homes covered in Union Jacks and Orient scarves! We also met a childhood hero of mine Peter Kitchen who played for us in the 70's. He works closely with Steve Jenkins in promoting the story of Orient in the Somme as the first British team to enlist en masse!
