In Remembrance🌹

[davelinks]

Remembering my great uncle Oscar..

[poppypug Graduate10]

Ah Dave yes, he played for Manchester United didn't he ?

I remember you telling me about him some time ago .

All those young lives lost, its so sad .......

[davelinks Graduate10 in reply to poppypug]

Yes pops, in 1908/09 cup final, I could imagine him playing footie with the Germans on Christmas day in no man's land.. Did you lose any relatives in the wars? I also lost another uncle, uncle John in 1941 at the battle of Tobruk, which I only found out about in my researching, my dad never spoke about losing his cousin..

[poppypug Graduate10 in reply to davelinks]

Im not sure Dave to be honest. My Mams side is a bit blurry, I never knew my Grandfather on her side xxx

[Millsie-J]

Lovely thought Dave.

My hubby has a great uncle who was killed at the Somme in WW1, 19 years old. Hubby's Dad was named after him. We tracked down the enscription at Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme Battlefields and hubby went to France to view after his Dad passed away without managing to ever get there. We also have his Dead Man's Penny'.

So many many young people killed.

[davelinks Graduate10 in reply to Millsie-J]

Yes jacs, he's on the Thiepval Memorial,was aged 28 and I have been in touch with a historian of the battlefield who gave me a good idea where he fell, he was with the 1st Football Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment formed under the Pals Battalion..

It appears they where advancing on a German Z trench when he was brought down when he went "over the top" probably hit by machine gun fire and left for dead as a lot were, then there was a massive bombardment of shelling on the area, so probably pulverised, hopefully he passed away quickly..😖

[Sandraj39 Graduate10]

We will remember, Dave. Also in memory of my Great Uncle Edgar who died during the second battle of Bapaume in 1918. He had been unable to sign up with his three brothers when war broke out because he was too young. All older brothers returned - my Grandad Frank (injured and scarred by a shrapnel injury), Stanley and Norman (one experienced a gas attack and one suffered shell -shock). Four brave young men from Preston. I bought a poppy in Edgars memory from the ''Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red'' art installation at the Tower of London in 2014 and had his name read out at one of their evening Last Post tributes. Always made sure my own boys know their stories and the sacrifices made by so many. Thank you for this post.

[davelinks Graduate10 in reply to Sandraj39]

Yes Sandra, we also got my Great uncles name read out at The Tower.. also have it on a video clip..

[Sandraj39 Graduate10 in reply to davelinks]

Lovely. we got the video clip as well. Very special.☺

[misswobble Graduate10]

My grandad was involved in WW1 as a very young man. Thankfully he came home but suffered for many years with his feet. Mum said it was trench foot, and I always remember him with his feet in wrapped in brown paper parcels

My uncle died in WW2 and I remember him this Sunday. He was killed in Holland in April 1945. The telegram my grandparents received was to inform them of his death. They thought it was to say he was on his way home; the war in Europe being over.

My parents both served. My dad was captured and ended up a POW and nearly died of starvation. I remember them both this weekend. My brother in law is a veteran (Parachute Regiment) and will be taking part in the service and parade. It's achingly sad

I attended my uncle's funeral fairly recently. He was a Commando. We will remember him also.

If you look in your local cemetery you will be staggered by the number of war graves. I have tried to put a poppy on each one, but even with all the poppies left over from the local services it's still not nearly enough to go round and ours is only a small graveyard.

[boptillyoudrop49 Graduate10]

My great uncle William died when his boat was sunk in the English channel by a German submarine. He was only 18 then in 1918. My paternal grandfather lost a leg in WW2. He was a lovely man, used to stab himself in the leg with a knife to give us a fright. Terrible all the suffering these young men went through in mud filled trenches, jungles, deserts, POW camps and so on.

[Scruffy64]

My great great uncle Herbert was drowned in a shell hole in Gallipoli, I don't know how he ended up serving there, so thank you davelinks , this has prompted me to do a bit more research.

[davelinks Graduate10]

Oh! Lovely responses from you lovely people! OK, some may not want to talk about the loss of their relatives, I understand that, but it's good to talk about them, keeps their spirit alive!☺

[Scruffy64]

If anyone is interested in looking up any family service records, Ancestry is offering free access to all UK military records this weekend until midnight tomorrow (Sunday).

home.ancestry.co.uk/

Sadly I have discovered my g g uncle did drown , but not in a shell hole as I had been told, he was on the SS Arcadian going from Salonika to Alexandria, and it was torpedoed on 15 April 1917. He was 34 years old, and serving in the 1st Batt. of the Devonshire Regiment. He lies in a military cemetary in Thessaloniki in Greece.

Such a terrible waste of so many millions of lives, I'm even more glad that I took part in the Poppy Run last weekend.

[Sandraj39 Graduate10 in reply to Scruffy64]

Thank you for this.

[davelinks Graduate10 in reply to Scruffy64]

Thanks scruffy, I looked up my ancestry some years ago, luckily I found one of my distant relatives had built a family tree and done a lot of research going way back, so unearthing some interesting info & skeleton's💀 in the cupboard!, and some sad facts of war come to light as you have found, and am sorry to hear about what happened to your GG uncle.

From the tree I found out my dad's cousin John was killed at the battle of Tobruk in 1941 aged 21 and is in Tobruk war cemetery, dad never spoke about him..and would only speak about the lighter time he had in the Royal Navy during the war and the places he visited, probably because we were only young children then. I wish I could speak to him now, as in recent years long after he died I've found out details of what operation he was in, as part of the massive Atlantic fleet of Feb1945 to the end of the war and had a number of medals for his efforts..😊

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate10]

My Granddad. Sapper Leveson Myatt, killed on the last day of WW1.

[misswobble Graduate10]

My sister and I plan to visit my uncle's grave in Holland. None of his family have ever visited. It's quite unbelievable isn't it. My local SSAFA say they can probably give us a bit of a help with the cost. I have found the exact location via the War Graves Commission.

Oh dear Floss! It's so God awfully tragic isn't it. In my local cemetery there are many who lost their lives after the guns fell silent; my own uncle included. Aged 24!

There is a very special, brave solider buried in a corner of my local grave yard, which was not even marked until locals clamoured to get him commemorated by his regiment. He now has a proper gravestone as befits a war hero, of two wars! He was not an officer but was awarded a Victoria Cross. There is information about him here

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willi...