In this first episode of a two-part podcast, we visit the largest British war memorial in the world, Sir Edwin Lutyen's geometric masterpiece, the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.

Bearing the names of over 72,000 British and South African soldiers who died on the Somme and have no known grave, the memorial stands as a testament to the volunteer Army who responded to Lord Kitchener's famous "Your country needs you!" appeal and who were killed in their thousands on the fields of Picardy in the Somme campaign.

We hear the story of a 20-year-old Irishman who won the Victoria Cross laying his life down for his friends and a 51-year-old international rugby-playing Vicar who enlisted to encourage others from his small parish in Kent.  We hear about the remarkable design of the memorial the trials and tribulations of French bureaucracy to get the memorial built, and how millions of years of history lie beneath your feet when you stand next to the magnificent War Stone under the memorial. 

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