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Laventie (; ) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. INSEE commune file
The artist Eric Kennington was stationed at Laventie with his unit, the 1/13th Battalion, London Regiment (Kensington), in the winter of 1914–15. After being wounded and evacuated he painted members of his platoon in the snowy village street. The painting, The Kensingtons at Laventie, considered by many to be his most important work, is in the collection of the Imperial War Museum, London.Richard Stevenson, 'Soldier Artists', Military Illustrated, No 264, May 2101, p. 32.
The engineer and inventor of the Hortag agricultural spade, A S Bullock, also recalls action at Laventie in a posthumously published memoir (written in the 1970s). In particular he recalls how the area near the old fortifications was defended not by trenches (because the water table was too high) but by barbed wire entanglements, and he recounts the experience of being ordered to march across this barbed wire and take up position in a former distillery, as well as subsequently volunteering for the near-impossible task of returning to the battalion alone and taking a message back to the platoon during the night.Bullock, A. S., Gloucestershire Between the Wars: A Memoir, History Press, 2009, pages 74-75
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