Moray mother's pilgrimage to World War One grave of Seaforth Highlander son who died on Western Front
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Elizabeth French felt she owed it to her son Joseph.
Added to that, she wanted to go for all the hundreds of other mothers in Moray who had also lost sons during the First World War.
Before her journey Elizabeth, a widow who had given birth eleven times, had probably never even left Moray.
Now she was determined to travel abroad to pay her respects to Joseph, who had been killed in action on July 31, 1917.
The Seaforth Highlander was just 21 when he fell on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele, a cruel stand-off that would eventually account for more than 400,000 deaths.
It wasn't until 1921 – three years after the war had ended – that Elizabeth was finally able to afford to go, having successfully applied to the authorities for a grant.
As well as shocking the world the conflict had also changed it forever.
A flavour of this comes through in Elizabeth's account of her journey which was published in the Northern Scot at the time.
Elizabeth began: "The war has broken down with ruthless hand the barriers which bound us to our own firesides.
"It is in hope that my own experiences may encourage timid-hearted mothers or other relatives, possibly as unused to travelling as myself, to make the journey that I now describe from a small diary the incidents I jotted down on the way.
She continues: "I left Garmouth on the afternoon of November 30th, and although friends tried to dissuade me, set myself as bravely as I could to the task I had laid myself.
"A melancholy pilgrimage it must be, but time, the great healer, has softened our grief to a tenderer, quieter sorrow strongly tinged with pride in our fallen heroes."
Elizabeth was both wary and excited as she headed south on the train from Garmouth.
She tells how, at Edinburgh, a farmer returning from an agricultural show got on board.
He had both a maimed left hand and a long scar across his face.
Falling into conversation she learns he's a veteran who fought in the same battle where Joseph was killed.
He tells her: "Ye'll realise what war really meant. Nae body that hisna been oot there kens that yet."
Elizabeth reaches London where she reports seeing a bus for the first time in her life.
She then starts to feel overawed by the sheer number of people rushing about.
Concerned about ever finding the hostel where she's meant to be staying, she approaches a policeman for help. Elizabeth is immensely pleased and comforted to discover he's Scottish.
She crosses the Channel to Belgium, where it is against the rules for men and women to sit in the same train compartment.
Eventually she finds herself at No Man's Cot Cemetery near Ypres.
She writes: "Letting my wreath slip I knelt down on the grave, and for a space the world was forgotten. I could only vaguely grasp that I was by his grave.
"... At last I forced myself to look around and tried to memorize the scene for in all human probability I shall never see it again. Perhaps some other mothers in Moray have sons there and are unable to go, so for their sakes I shall try to describe the cemetery.
"It lies on the ridge of a large bare slope below which the war has raged bitterly and for many months.
"Away across a wide valley rises another ridge, and in every direction as far as the eye can reach rise the white columns of stone erected in each of the the British cemeteries at the cessation of the hostilities."
The car in which Elizabeth has been to the cemetery also bears the scars of war. It's bullet and shrapnel-dented.
She writes: "Blindly I left the cemetery and stumbled through the field, and in silence Tommy helped me to enter the car.
"In silence for which I shall always remember him with kindness, the poor lad drove me away so quickly that when I turned for a last look at the cemetery I could scarcely distinguish it.
"My son's grave was hid from me for all time, but I will always be glad that I have seen it."
Jane Webb, who is Elizabeth's granddaughter, was so moved after reading her relative's account that she has now compiled a book about it.
A retired clerical worker who lives in Cambridgeshire, Jane said: "I think Elizabeth was an incredible and courageous person.
"She's a really good writer.
"She left school at the age of 11 to become a farm servant, after only receiving basic education, but went on to become a prolific creator of short stories and poems.
"I'm really proud to be related to her."
Elizabeth was born in Dallas in 1874 and had gone on to marry a ship's carpenter from Garmouth.
Joseph had been the eldest of their 11 children.
Not long after losing her son, Elizabeth also became a widow when her husband succumbed to tuberculosis.
With six children still at home to look after, she would send in contributions to the Northern Scot to supplement her meagre income.
She became well-known locally for writing poems and short stories about the area.
Sadly, Elizabeth died in 1927 at the age of just 53 after suffering a major heart attack.
Her obituary stated: "...she was self-educated, and as the possessor of a graphic pen and a fertile imagination would under happier circumstances have made a name for herself."
As well as Elizabeth's account of her journey, the newly published book, titled 'Mother's Pilgrimage', includes two letters sent home by Joseph, the second less than a month before his death.
There's also an official communication sent by an army padre informing Elizabeth that her son has been killed.
"Dear Mrs French," it begins, "I have a very sad and painful piece of news to break to you, which I am afraid you will indeed find very hard to bear."
More happily, the book tells of a touching discovery which Jane made during a relatively recent visit to the military museum at Fort George.
This revelation would result in her meeting for the first time a person who shared a common connection dating back more than a century.
To get a copy of Mother's Pilgrimage, contact jane.webb3@btinternet.com
