REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY 2020

It was certainly a different Remembrance Sunday for most of us this year, with many parades and services cancelled.  However, we had a good Zoom Church Service with a 2 minute silence at the beginning to remember the fallen in all wars and no doubt many remembered members of their own families who had been involved in different wars over the years.

Going clockwise, this collage shows Mr. HCB’s father, Harry, at the top left, who was in India for much of the Second World War and came home in about 1946, when Mr. HCB was about 4 years old.  He never actually fought any battles in the war because he had bad eyesight, but instead worked in the cookhouse although Mr. HCB says he never remembers him doing any cooking at home.

Next is Harry’s brother, Ernest, who was born in February 1919, got married in 1942 and then very soon after went to France and fought in World War II.  Sadly he was killed in action on 10th July 1944 and is buried at Banneville Military Cemetery in Normandy.  As far as we know, his widow, Christine, who married again, is still alive and would be about 97 years old now.

At the top right is one of only two photographs I have of my father, Joe, sitting on the front left, with his three brothers, who were also in the military during the Second World War.  It has only just occurred to me today that it must have been awful for their parents to have four sons serving their country - and wondering every time there was a knock at the door, whether one of them had been killed or injured.  Thankfully, they all came home after the war.

I only have one photograph of my Mum in her service uniform and she would have been about 25 when this was taken.  She was in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force - known as WAAFs.  I don’t know much about what she did, but I do know she looked after high-ranking Army personnel stationed at Chiseldon Camp, a village near Swindon. She often used to say she “waited at table”, but was adamant it was not just any old table, but “Silver Service” - and it always made me smile when she said this but she was obviously proud of what she did!

Next to Mum is a photograph of her brother, my Uncle Alfie, who would have been about 20 when this was taken at the beginning of the Second World War.  Before he went into the Army, he worked in the Railway works in Swindon.  I don’t remember much about him, except that he had a badly deformed hand as the result of a war injury and was a very nervous man, no doubt left over from the awful sights he had seen during the war.  When he came home, he went back to work in the Railways, but no doubt was hampered by his injured hand.

Middle left is my Grandfather, also Alfred, who served in the First and Second World Wars - he served on HMS Durban, so he would have been about 40 years old when this shot was taken.  Having served in the First World War, as a stoker on various ships, he was awarded the Victory Medal and I have a Log Book kept by my Grandfather, written in his own hand, between 1919 and 1922.  He served again in the Second World War on HMS Durban, from 1939 to 1942 when he was invalided out of the Navy. 

Many of those who were in the Armed Services never spoke much about their experiences, but I do wish I had asked more questions while they were still alive - and I don’t suppose I am alone in thinking that.

“Never in the field of human conflict 
     was so much owed 
          by so many 
               to so few.” 
Winston Churchill