Credit: David Heal

Chronicle.lu has teamed up with local author and tour guide David Heal of Luxembourg Battles for a new historical series.

Based on David Heal's extensive research spanning several decades (and documented in the form of place-name index cards), the series aims to present interesting local historical events and facts linked to places in (and around) Luxembourg.

Next up is a look at the history of Ell, an old village first mentioned as far back as 1270 when it was called “Dele” and “Elte”. It was quite important right up to modern times and now is a backwater, according to David. However, in the census of 1635, it declared that it had 32 families living there. This shows how the plague affected people, because by the time of the census of 1656 there were only eight families left, the rest either having fled or died out.

A castle was built there in the 12th century, and the remains are still there, it having been mostly destroyed in a siege of 1453. This article’s challenge is to find what remains.

Today, the main thing of interest is to be found in the cemetery: one of the very few World War One monuments and the tomb of people who fought and were killed in the French army. The tomb monument (pictured) is for two men of the same family. The first is Captain Lucien Claude of the 103rd Infantry Regiment and decorated with the Légion D’Honneur and the Croix de Guerre avec Palmes. He was born in Paris and died on 22 August 1914 at Ethe (the first major battle of the war and the start of the Battle of the Frontiers). The second is Lieutenant Henri Claude of the 115th Infantry Regiment who died on 17 December 1914, decorated with the Légion D’Honneur and the Croix de Guerre. He died on 17 December 1914 at Maricourt, Somme.

The strange point is that neither of these men, who were brothers, nor their parents are recorded in Luxembourg records, explained David. The French records show them to have been buried in Ethe cemetery, but their graves are simply not there, nor is there any mention of them. So why are they buried here? The mystery lives on…

The church beside which they are buried was built in the 18th century and can be found in a largely original state.