Remembrance Day

Start of WWI

End of WWI

  As it is Remembrance Day, I thought I would post some old photos of family members in uniform.  Above are pictures of my father's father, William Ernest, taken at the start and end of WWI - what a difference a few years make!  He was a Sergeant in the cavalry and was stationed in Germany. He must have seen some awful things in his time there, but my dad says he never talked about his experiences, something which was probably typical of that time.

  The next image down is my maternal Grandfather, Horace Ernest Edwards.  I never met him as he died when my mother was in her early 20's.  He looks awfully young in the picture and there is a strong resemblance between him and my brother.  I don't know anything about his experiences during the first world war, not even where he was stationed or what rank he was.

     Next is a picture of my great-uncle, Stephen George Stroud, my Nana's eldest brother (he's the one on the left).  My Nana was one of eight and, sadly, Stephen died on the French battlefield mere weeks before the end of the first world war.  He is buried in a military cemetery in France, near the Belgium border.  No one in the family has ever visited his grave and, one day, I would like to make the trek there to pay my respects.  In 1919, his sister, Marie, died from the Spanish Flu, a not-uncommon experience for that time. Stephen's father was never the same and drank himself into an early grave sometime in the 1930's.

Dad, WWII

     Both my father and Uncle served during the end of second world war.  My dad was a meteorologist in the RAF and went all over the world including India, Ceylon, the Cocos Islands, Australia and Japan.  Let's all take some time to remember what all of these brave people did and are still doing to ensure we live in a better and safer world.