French World War I Soldier’s Bedroom Untouched For Over 100 Years
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French World War I soldier Hubert Rochereau died in an English field ambulance on April 26, 1918 a day after being wounded during fighting for the village of Loker in Flanders. He was 21 years old.
h/t: vintag.es
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His parents had no idea where he was buried until 1922 when his body was discovered in a British cemetery and repatriated to the graveyard at Bélâbre, France. They turned the room into a permanent memorial, leaving it largely as it had been the day he went off to war.
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Hubert’s bedroom was left untouched in his memorial for over 100 years. His military hat lays quietly on the 100 year-old bedsheets not far away of a dusty military jacket. Pictures of a young man stand on various surfaces. His chair, tucked under his desk, faces the window in the room where he was born on October 10, 1896.
Guillaume Souvant/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
“When you walk into it it’s as if time has stood still,” Laurent Laroche, mayor of Bélâbre, told the Guardian. “Our little village is being spoken about the world over, which makes me proud to be mayor. And maybe it will help us find long-lost Rochereau relatives and save the room. It would be a great pity for it to be lost to future generations.”
Guillaume Souvant/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Guillaume Souvant/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Guillaume Souvant/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Guillaume Souvant/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Guillaume Souvant/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Guillaume Souvant/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Guillaume Souvant/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Guillaume Souvant/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images