BISHOP AVERILL.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1920, Page 7

BISHOP AVERILL.

VISIT TO THE BATTLEFIELDS. London, Sept. 23. The Bishop of Auckland anil his son, Mr. L. C. L. Averill, who is a medical student at Edinburgh, have returned from a tour of the battlefields. They visited the Flanders district first, spending two days in the devastated area in apd around Ypres. They then went to the battlefields of Northern Franco, visiting the Somme district, including Bapaume (where Lieutenant Averill gained his Military Cross), Bailleiil, Lens, Loos, Albert, Vimy Ridge, Delvillc Wood, Neuve Chapelle, Pozierea, Armentieres, Arras, and Poperinghe. They saw the monument erected at Vimy Ridge by the Canadians, and the monuments at Passchendaele and Poziores erected .by the Australians. ''We visited many cemeteries," said Bishop Averill, "which spoke even more eloquently than the devastated country and towns of the tremendous sacrifice made for the world's freedom. I saw at Albert a photograph of a completed cemetery with headstones, and if all are carried out on the same lines, the result will be satisfactory. "At the present time some cemeteries are well kept, others not so well. I noticed that the temporary crosses on the New Zealanders' graves were larger and better than on the graves of the British men. Perhaps the most interesting thing of all was the number o! original crosses with the names written an pencil." ,

Since returning from France, Bishop Averill has visited Stratford-on-Avon, Warwick, Leamington, Konilworth, Coventry and Birmingham. This week he has gone with his family to Scotland. He will return to London about October, and sail for New Zealand on the 10th of that month.