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[Lizzie Zoom]

Today let us all remember our lost ones due to conflict and war.

I will go first with our family losses:

May we remember them

My Great Uncle Frank "Wally" Edwards, aged 37, killed on the 30th July 1917 at Ypres

My Grandfather Thomas Freeman, aged 40, killed by a Luftwaffe bomb on the 12th September, 1940

 

[BazaJT]

I was lucky in that respect.Both grandfathers served in and survived WW1.Dad-although in a reserved occupation at the time-volunteered andserved/survived WW2.One son-in-law saw service in N.Ireland,theFalklands,Desert Storm and Afghanistan and also survived unscathed.

[Sir Tigger KC]

2 of my 4 Grandfathers served in WW1.

George Parsons was a Driver/Mechanic with the Royal Naval Air Service and served in Belgium.  Apparently he was shot and wounded, but I don't know for sure as he died before I was born and my Mum didn't know the details.

Frank Stone lied about his age and joined the Dorsetshire Regiment at 15 and was sent to India to relieve the regulars who were sent to the Western Front.  I think he got involved with a putting down a rebellion against British rule somewhere.    He once told me he guarded a brothel to stop the British troops from going in.  The Scots were the worst he said "Dirty buggers in their kilts!"        He went on to see further action in Mesopotamia where the Dorsets were fighting the Turks and I think that this was some hard soldiering and not many people realise that the British Army were fighting in present day Iraq 100 years ago.  He survived but got sick (typhoid or dysentery) and was shipped home.  When he walked in the door his Mum didn't recognise him..... 

My 2 other Grandfathers were too young for WW1 and to old for WW2.  One was an ARP warden and the other was in the Home Guard and family legend has it that he did something in Wales!  Of 3 Great Uncles that I know about, one joined the RAF and was a gunner on the Lancasters, one was a Fireman during the blitz in Plymouth and the other was a Farmer which was a reserved occupation.

They were the lucky ones who survived, but carried the memories for the rest of their days.   

Lest We Forget!

[Shackeng]

Father, Major QORWK, killed in India 1945, 2 weeks before coming home, having survived Dunkirk, I last saw him when I was 4. Buried in Karachi War Cemetery.
FIL, pioneer Sgt, wounded in both legs during Battle of Hazebrouck, POW for 3 years, and came home minus 1 leg.
Uncle Leslie, Sgt RE's, died of wounds sustained at the Somme. Buried in Chatham.
Grandfather, served the colours in the KOSB as RSM during a full career including the Boer war.

I wore their medals with pride today.

[Lizzie Zoom]

Father, Major QORWK, killed in India 1945, 2 weeks before coming home, having survived Dunkirk, I last saw him when I was 4. Buried in Karachi War Cemetery.
FIL, pioneer Sgt, wounded in both legs during Battle of Hazebrouck, POW for 3 years, and came home minus 1 leg.
Uncle Leslie, Sgt RE's, died of wounds sustained at the Somme. Buried in Chatham.
Grandfather, served the colours in the KOSB as RSM during a full career including the Boer war.

I wore their medals with pride today.

A great tribute to your heroes

[Rods2]

One of my grandad's was in the army, He had a lucky escape when three of them were using a communications trench between the first and second lines, where they were a bit more exposed than they realized and a German machine gunner opened fire as he swung the gun to kill all three of them bullets killed the one in front and the one behind my grandad with head wounds. Fate meant his head was between two shots. During a German attack the person next to him went to throw a Mills bomb and dropped it, my grandad kicked it round the corner where the trenches were castellated which saved their lives, but his foot and ankle took the blast and he was injured and had a hole in his weak ankle for the rest of his days. Needless to say, that was the end of his active service. Before the war where he came from a poor family he was a delivery boy, as part of his rehabilitation at the end of the war he was able to go Huddersfield Technical College and get a good job as a result. I've managed to find his war record online which is interesting.

I had several great uncles that saw active service, including one who fought on the Somme, but they all got through WWI unscathed. One of them worked as a coal miner after WWI and was trapped for several days he wrong side of a roof fall that killed several of the miners he worked with. That was the end of his career as a miner where he suffered from claustrophobia as a result.

My other grandad was a CPO in the RN and fought in the Battle of Jutland and suffered from PTSD in the 1920's which made him violent, so he volunteered to go into a mental hospital and was never released. I suspect this was a common fate for PTSD suffers as it wasn't understood or considered treatable.I can't find his war record but many were destroyed in the 1940 blitz on London. My mum came from a military officer's family with my grandma being born in India where the family was posted there at the time.

I never met either of my granddads where one died a few days from his 60th birthday from an aneurysm, which was several years before I was born and I was never allowed to visit the one in a mental hospital.

My dad had only just started work at 16 in 1941 and was in a reserved occupation, so saw no action and my only uncle was a Bevin boy and worked in a coal mine at the end of WWII. Due to a shortage of miners towards the end of WWII 1 in 10 that were called up were made to go and work in the mines.

[Viral_Jim]

I was lucky in that respect.Both grandfathers served in and survived WW1.Dad-although in a reserved occupation at the time-volunteered andserved/survived WW2.One son-in-law saw service in N.Ireland,theFalklands,Desert Storm and Afghanistan and also survived unscathed.

Likewise, I am fortunate, but for different reasons. I am the product of a family of coal miners and a family of farmers, so no losses in conflict. Nevertheless, SWMBO and I attended our local church for the service of remembrance. Its the only day of the year she and I will set foot in such places.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Both Grandfathers served in the first war. Injuries sustained in it meant the one of them didn't live to see the 2nd. The other also served in the second though.
Various uncles served in various conflicts after WW2.
Both parents worked in Govt. security jobs in N. Ireland which apparently made them legitimate targets.
The IRA tried to kill both of them, and Mum in particular came very close indeed. If the sniper had spent a little more time setting up his sight, she wouldn't have got beyond 1974. I suspect the shock brought on her first heart attack a short time after though.
I'm proud of the fact that even in todays snowflake world, people from all generations still recognise the significance of the sacrifices people made in the past.
Long may it continue.