In many cases grandfather was a young man who suffered, died and was buried in France.” The war is now also on the National Curriculum for GCSE history, and schoolchildren are persuading parents to take them on fact-finding trips to the battlefields.Most of the raw volunteer troops of Lord Kitchener’s army in 1916 sailed from Southampton to Boulogne, and were taken by train to base camps around Amiens before marching or being driven up to the front lines – some of them in double-decker red London buses shipped over for the purpose. By the end of the day 20,000 of them lay dead, and 40,000 were wounded; it was the greatest tactical blunder in British military history. Most British people have heard of the Somme, but only a small proportion of British visitors to France visit the battlefields, perhaps not appreciating how close these sites are to home. Yet when the fighting was at it peak the shellfire could be heard throughout southern England.
In recent times there has been a surge of interest in the First World War.

Martin Middlebrook, whose book The First Day on the Somme did much to spark the revival when it was first published in 1971, says: “The study of family history has become a popular hobby, and more people want to find out exactly what grandfather went through in the Great War. All cavemen and women welcome.Start point: Contact the British Orienteering Federation on 01629 734042 for information on events and local clubs.. ON 1 JULY 1916, 120,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers – most of them recent civilian volunteers – climbed out of their trenches and walked into a hail of German machine-gun bullets. Yvette Hague is Britain’s top woman having won silver and bronze medals in previous world championships,” he said.”We are hoping in a few years it will be accepted as an Olympic sport but for that you need 75 countries to be actively supporting it and so far there are only 50.”At next year’s World Championships an amateur event will be held where the public can orienteer every day for a week between watching the professional races.Orienteering may not be high-octane adventure but it can be a great day out in the countryside, either in tame and sheltered areas like the New Forest or more challenging environments like the Lake District or the Scottish Highlands. Mr Pugh believes Britain has a real chance of winning.”The Scandinavians are always very strong but we have some good orienteers at the moment, especially women.

Britain is quite good at orienteering – we rank about fifth in the world – and our national team is currently training hard for the World Championships in Inverness next summer. By each control hangs a hole punch which the orienteer must use to mark his or her route card. As each punch is different they verify that the controls were visited.If your Saturday night was too boisterous to allow you to run far on Sunday afternoon, then simply walk the course. For children there is a String Course where young participants learn the basics of finding their way in the woods by following a trail of string around a short trail.”People enjoy it because it is a good mix of physical and mental agility. You have to think out here, you have to observe the landscape around you to work out where you are and where you need to go next,” said Mr Robson.The officials were packing up as we stumbled up the last slope to the finish line. I was a little out of breath and my shaky right knee had started to nag but we had found our controls and rediscovered our way after losing it when crossing a mystery stream that was not marked on the map.We were met at the finish by Tim Pugh, the director of the World Championship Committee. If you want to compete there’s a race where you might be up against world championship orienteers, or if you just want to take it easy and have some fun then you can do a less demanding course.”This makes orienteering a great leveller.