“Lest we forget”.
Posted by Big John on November 11, 2012
During World War I, my grandfather served with the Royal Field Artillery, as did my great uncle Bill. Although he was ‘knocked about a bit’ my grandfather returned to his family at the end of that conflict. Bill was not so lucky ! So I decided to try and find out what had happened to him and came up with this ‘medal card’ record from the National Archives …
… It shows that Bill served as a Gunner with 8th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery and was one of the first soldiers to fight in France as he was awarded the 1914 Star (The Mons Star) with the clasp for service between 5th August and 22nd November 1914. It also records that he was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal, although, of course, the poor bugger was no longer around to have them pinned to his chest, for looking further into the records I discovered that Bill died on 8th May 1915 at the Second Battle of Ypres where his unit saw action in a battle which resulted in over 100,000 casulties. His fate is confirmed by the chilling entry …
“K in A”
Gabbygeezer said
Some of us balk at giving just a bit to good causes. Perhaps we should spend a moment or two contemplating what people like your great uncle Bill gave.
Ginnie said
Oh, John, that is so sad. My dad was in World War 1 but he wasn’t old enough to join up until 1918 and, for some reason he was in the area where the Brest-Litovsk treaty was signed…so he never really experienced that horrendous war first hand.