90 years ago an armistice was signed to end the 1st World War. My Grandfather served int hat war on the western front as a Driver in the Royal Field Artillery 250th Brigade. Part of the 50th Northumbrian division. He was wounded by mustard gas on May 28 1918 and was invalided back to Tooting hospital where he no doubt celebrated the Armistice announcement.
Oddly had he not been gassed he may never have met my grandmother. He met her while sitting on the hospital walls as she and her friends walked to work at a munitions factory. As he was a Wolverhampton boy he probably never would have come to London at all. So in a "sliding doors" kind of way, that nasty evil gas resulted in my Dad and in turn me and the rest of my siblings and offspring being here today.
I will always honour the 11th November and encourage the kids as they grow up to do so too. When I visited the memorial in Ypres to the Northumbrian division it was quite overwhelming to see my grandfathers fallen compatriots in the 250th RFA. So many and so young and many were nameless "A soldier of the Great War - known unto God".
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I never knew my Grandfather as he died 6 years before I was born but I wish he had told more of his war story to my father and he to me. For now I have traced his medal record and read the war diaries of the 250th RFA to get a glimpse of the terrible times he strived through to ensure I can have the great lifestyle we live today.
I will again visit France and Belgium to see the places where he fought and pass my respect to all those who fell who left no descendants to remember them as well as those who were there and came back nursing their wounds be they physical or mental. Theirs was a hard life.
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