(image from here )
my grandfather, his brother and brother in law all went off to fight - papa and uncle arthur to gallipoli and then france and my uncle leslie to france. william (my papa) and his brother arthur came back having miraculously survived the unspeakable - both were gassed, arthur had survived a bullet wound to the head and both had been awarded medals.some time later william wrote of his experiences at gallipoli - you can see some of the pages of this journal here
leslie wasn't so lucky - he had been a conscientious objector and ended up going off to fight after one too many anonymous white feathers. white feathers notwithstanding he was no coward and won the military medal and bar for the kind of reckless heroics that war was famous for.
he fought in france and was shot and wounded - he died of wounds a few weeks before the armistice. the letter to his young wife speaks of his bravery and sacrifice.
like so many others, he didn't live long enough to have children or grandchildren to remember him on remembrance day.
4 comments:
Hi Lisette,
Your grandfather's journal is very special, how wonderful to have such a memory of him.
I know you just had an award, but I have given you another one... See my blog for the details!
Cheers, Linda
I find if difficult to read my hand writing, Williams is about like mine, can only pick out a word or 2, here or there. Be a nice love, and translate and post next to original entries. What a waste of not knowing what he was thinking. But who am I? I can sense life and death thoughts. often similar, less different time or place. hell is hell, may have different colors shapes or sizes, but it is hell. Bliss i would guess is the same and end up as bliss. Then there is the middle... ... hahahahaha
if you click on each photo of the journal on the flickr page you can read the transcript - it's great stuff
I could not find any photos of the journal on the flickr. I simply would like to read not in hand writing form. but what ever, im busy waiting for the phone to ring (some one, any one that needs plumbing work), listening to bbc on internet and watching market prices.
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