Thetownend.com

Today is a very emotional one for anyone that had relatives or friends in the services that have given their lives or passed away. This year is especially poignant due to the passing of my Great Uncle, Ralph Brigginshaw.

Great Uncle Ralph passed away in October, 3 days after receiving his Norwegian War Medal for his involvement in the Battle of Narvik.

The adver has written up a very humbling article, even though they got my age wrong l.o.l.

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/18027697.swindon-familys-tributes-last-surviving-member-world-war-2-naval-battle/

His coffin was draped with the Royal Navy White Ensign and carried to its final resting place by my dad, uncle (dad brother) and another uncle (one of grandads nephews) and myself. I had never, and will never again, have such an honour and privilege to carry a WW2 veteran to their final resting place. He, along with his crewmates, carried so much on their backs when they went to war it was only fitting that he be carried the final few feets to his resting place by others.

I urge you all to share your stories today, to help share the grief and memory of all those lost.

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them"

Great story.

My grandad was captured at Dunkirk, inland, defending those awaiting extraction off the beaches. Spent 5 years as a POW, he basically had to walk to Poland.

My great grandad on my mums side was captured at Dunkirk also, he was part of the vanguard that held the germans back whilst the evac happened.

He also had to do the long march to Poland and spent the rest of the war in a POW Camp.

They might have fought alongside each other, he was in one of the Highlander regiments, either seaforth or argyll and Sutherland. My dad can't recall which. We have a Christmas 1943 postcard from the stalag he was in.

Mt Great Uncle Alfred died in Ypres on 13th November 1914 after surviving the initial large battle at Mons.

He fought directly vs Adolf Hitler in the battle of Geluvelt, Ypres.

He signed up on the 1st day of the war at Monmouth although he lived in Coleford in the Forest of Dean. He was 26 and fought in 3 battles prior to his death. He was blown up by a shell along with 6 others and his body was never found hence his name being on the Menin Gate at Ypres.

My Uncle still has his "Soldiers Penny" given to families that have lost sons in battle.

Was he a regular soldier? I can't imagine any volunteers would have fought at Mons -that was the regular army (the BEF). It's nice to hear of a 'death penny' with the family - often see these in antique/junk shops.
Unbelievable what these men went through.

Very sad story,  as already said so many 'pennies' turn up at auction,  I often think surely there must be some one in the family proud to own it.   Maybe they have no family left but it is small reward for the loss of a life,  glad to hear yours is still in the family and  being cherished.

I did some research into the death of my great-uncle, Reggie Gumbleton, on a ship in the Dardanelles in 1915, and was amazed at the detail I was able to uncover. I recorded it on the British Legion's impressive Every One Remembered site:
https://www.everyoneremembered.org/profiles/soldier/3033657/

More recently, I've been trying to piece together the events leading to the demise of a family member who was shot down in an Anson off the coast of Holland in May 1940 while trying to stop a flotilla of E-Boats getting down to Dunkirk. The crew were spotted ditching and taking to a life-raft, but the next day no sign of it could be found. Did it sink or were the crew disposed of by the E-Boats?

My grandfather worked in the theatre in chiswick before the war. He was drafted and sailed to Canada to get pilot training for the RAF. He then sailed back across a u-Boat infested Atlantic to fly Lancaster bombers until the end of the war.
His uncles died in ww1. His brother died in a battle in Belgium

It amazes me I’m alive.

These are amazing stories guys, this is what remembrance day is about. Thank you all for sharing, I hope that these stories continue on down the generations until the world wars are seen in the same light as the other wars before them.

My maternal grandfather spent pretty much all of WW2 in India as a gunner in the Royal Observer Corp, waiting for the expected invasion by the Japanese that never came. The only action he saw was when he was accidentally run over by some type of heavy gun on wheels, which broke his leg.

My paternal grandfather had an even easier time of it being in a "reserved occupation" as a bus driver in Swindon.

They were both very lucky compared to most!

Did they consider themselves lucky?

My great great grandfather Richard Bartlett died of wounds on 15 August 1917 aged 39 and is buried at Le Havre.

He was with the Somerset Light Infantry. From what I can gather, his battalion were part of the BEF but my limited research hasn't really turned up much in terms of where he actually saw battle (or if he actually did).

Private Dennis Dew, my great uncle was killed in 1944 fighting to liberate the town of Brunssum in Holland.   

He was buried in the town and my daughter visited on a battlefield trip with the school last year.  The town of Brunssum honoured those who fought to liberate the town by giving them honorary citizenship of the town in September this year.   

See entry for 14th August on the Purton in the Great War fb group. Plenty of detail and photos there.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/pgw1418/posts/

Yes, I have seen that before, thank you.

Very much so yes, although 4 years in India away from his wife and young family probably wore a bit thin...

My Great Grandad was in the Lifeguards and survived the trenches at Ypres. Family legend is that he was taken prisoner by the Germans and escaped!

My Uncle Tony died on HMS Bullen in 1944,aged 20. Torpedoed by a U boat off the north coast of Scotland.

My Great Uncle Ernie i've mentioned on here before. He was one of Wingate's Chindits out in Burma and got blown up twice.
 At one point he was so shell shocked he  didn't know his own name  It was only when someone fron his home village turned up to the field hospital  and recognised him that they could send him home!
 He somehow survived and lived into his 90's!
My wife's Grandad was part of Bomber Harris's crew who destroyed Dresden,again,he survived. Apparently he flew the actual Wellington  which is in the RAF Museum at Hendon

I think of them all at this time of year and how terrifying it must have been for them.

My great uncle Leslie William George James Hayward (son of Mr. W. G. Hayward, of 36, High St., Cricklade) served in the RAMC as a medical orderly. He was working unarmed to recover wounded when he was killed by German sniper at Delville Wood, France on 17th September 1916.

He is buried at Delville Wood Cemetery, Longueval which is actually a mainly South African cemetery, and whilst my old man has been over to visit his grave I have never made it so far. 

My grampy from Swindon also served in WW2, as a gunnery instructor, firstly in Oban (where it is a family rumour that he fathered another child) and then shipped out to Burma where he fairly quickly got Malaria.

My old man remains convinced that he mainly enlisted in order to get away from his wife (my grandmother)!
 

Excellent. Not the being away bit.

The reason for asking was I'm reading a book by a former SBS operative who got PTSD and felt guilty for not being there fighting amongst his unit. And how he wanted in on the action (before it hit).

My dear uncle Cyril Cottrell was in the R.E.M.E supporting the Italian campaign, Monte Cassino etc. Walking along a narrow lane one night he was unfortunately clipped by one of our own lorries and had to be transported back to Swindon with a broken leg. One of his most valued possessions was a framed letter of thanks from the Italian government, which hung on his living room wall until he passed away a couple of months ago aged 98.

Both my grandfathers fought in and survived WW1. They were too young at the start so joined later on.

My great uncle was captured at Singapore and was sent to a Japanese POW camp for 3.5 years. He came home weighing 5 stone despite being 6 foot tall.  Unsurprisingly he never really spoke of his horrific encounter and I was too young to fully understand when he died.

My mum occasionally tells me snippets like his inability to use a knife and fork on his return, nightmares, cigarette burns over his body and head.  Films like Unbroken and The Railway Man only scratch the surface of their cruelty.