Remembrance Sunday: Great Uncle Ralph Brigginshaw

[Samdy Gray]

Yes, I have seen that before, thank you.

[Mister Lorenzo]

Did they consider themselves lucky?

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

[Sir Cliff Pipehard]

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.

[horlock07]

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)!
 

[Batch]

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

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).

[Munichred]

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.

[Bewster]

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.