Topic: Lest we forget

[bear]

99 years, a long time.
The cenotaph is just across from the pub. and I'm listening to the "Last Post"

Lest We Forget

[Killer Canary]

I've read so much about life in the trenches that I had nightmares about it.
Appalling conditions for everyone involved.

[vfourfreak]

In 1975 after a spill from a very small motorbike which nevertheless broke my femur, I had the privilege to share a hospital room with a dispatch runner from the great War. He regaled me for two weeks with tales from the trenches and the passage of 60 years had not seemed to dim his memory. There may have been some embroidery involved, but I don't think it altered the essential facts. Almost all the stories ended up with the comment that one or more of the protagonists in his account died a week or two later when a shell splinter got them, or some other gruesome end.

In my book, that man was superhuman.

Kev

[scunny]

the "great adventure"
Every town round here has a memorial marking the loss of their sons.

[vfourfreak]

the "great adventure"
Every town round here has a memorial marking the loss of their sons.

Same in France Scunny. They are in fact getting ready for the memorial at 11am.

They will also remember the fallen from the Second war, the Indo China war (Vietnam to everyone else) and the Algerian war. And we'll do it all again some day somewhere else.

Kev

[vfourfreak]

I've twice visited the battlefields of Verdun and the Somme once. Not a barrel of laughs by any means.

Kev

[mick7504]

Just recently, I'd dicovered that my Grandfather (on my Dad's side) was a soldier in the Light Horse Brigade in WW1.
Maybe I was told that when I was a kid but just can't remember or that it didn't mean anything at the time being so young.
Strange thing was that our parents didn't talk about the past which included talking about deaths  in the family and that sort of stuff.
That's just how it was back then and it was just a blank in my mind.

Anyway,  fast forward to the digital age.
I decided to start building a family tree and signed up to that Ancestry dot Com turnout.
The theiving fcukas wanted 250 bucks for a 6 month subscription  but I couldn't help myself and paid my dues just to turn up some dirt on the family history.

It does suck you in a fair bit and there is quite a few records from the archives that are accessible.
So here's a photo of Grandpa.
If it hadn't of been for him, I wouldn't be here and that'd piss me off. 
Lest We Forget.

[vfourfreak]

Mick,

was he John Batton Hastings  of the 3rd Light Horse ?

Kev

[mick7504]

That is 100% correct Kev.
How do you know that mate?
I'm still researching this and I can tell you that Grandpa's mothers maiden name was Batton.
My Grandmother  (Johns wife) passed away at the birth of my uncle.
I think that was 1935??
Then he remarrired Gwendolyn Elva Michell who's family had a substantial wool business in South Australia.
Apparently, Gwendolyn was a beneficiary of the Adelaide University from what I've discovered.
There is a reference to that on Wikipedia.
Maybe there's some hope for me yet. 

[demon78]

A sad time of year. Minus 3 in Wiarton, but sunny that will be a break I hope all the old guys make it, I wonder how my Sqdn mates are doing. I'll have to email my old buddies to make sure they are still full of piss and vinegar.
Bill the demon.

[vfourfreak]

That is 100% correct Kev.
How do you know that mate?
I'm still researching this and I can tell you that Grandpa's mothers maiden name was Batton.
My Grandmother  (Johns wife) passed away at the birth of my uncle.
I think that was 1935??
Then he remarrired Gwendolyn Elva Michell who's family had a substantial wool business in South Australia.
Apparently, Gwendolyn was a beneficiary of the Adelaide University from what I've discovered.
There is a reference to that on Wikipedia.
Maybe there's some hope for me yet. 

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R2026370

[vfourfreak]

Sort of sums it up.

Kev

[CycleRanger]

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
    Between the crosses, row on row,
  That mark our place; and in the sky
  The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead.   Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
  Loved and were loved, and now we lie
      In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
  The torch; be yours to hold it high.
  If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
      In Flanders fields.

[demon78]

And Gentles it looks again to be approaching Ohh well unless some one drops a nuke in the lower part of Ontario I probably don't have to worry about it, at 78 having to strap on the old # 5a battle dress would be a piss off and sadly while I might be able to pick up the skills needed for the flight line my body wouldn't take the strain although marshalling A/C with a cane would be interesting.
Here's to Peace may I die before it does.
Bill the demon.