Breaking Through, Travelling On

Goldiegirl

From what I've been reading this weekend about WW2, it is sobering indeed.

These were young men, in unimaginably horrific situations.

Are you going to the Menin Gate? I went a few years ago. Sobering is the word, and it brings home just how many men were lost.

I have a food processer -it's about 30 years old. I mainly use it to chop onions, so avoid making my eyes water!

Karmacat

We are, Goldie, the Menin Gate: our Canadian survived the war, so he's not named there, but was gassed and shot, captured and repatriated before the end of the war. We've had a lot of military men in our family, plus some men in very dangerous reserved occupations, and only my uncle died, and only this one was a prisoner.

Even as a historian, I don't know that much about World War I - when I was at school, history lessons stopped in 1875 after the unification of Germany and Italy, I'm not kidding :rotfl: Even at college, I remember much more about the English Civil War than anything more recent... hey ho. At least I studied the War Poets, and some of them sound so modern, you'd swear they were written by the lads out in Iraq and Afghanistan a few years ago.

Sort of a sombre end to the weekend - but I have to say, my *own* weekend has been brilliant :j its lovely to sit out in the garden, and even now the bees are buzzing about.

Karmacat

Morning :hello:

I'm a writer, y'know

Experimenting with laconic-ness-ness* as per Gally and Al :j:j



* I'm not very good at it though :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

Good Morning all and what promises to be a sunny start to the week:j

Have read all the posts about the Menin Gate and KC's various posts about her Canadian soldier with great interest. I'm sure your visit will be very emotional and thought-provoking. I had a permanent lump in my throat and got through wads of tissues when I went there a few years ago. It's very very humbling.

Do you recall my mentioning some boxes of old postcards I was going to sort through? I came across one dated February 1915 from a young lady to her aunt with a message that 'Edward' (I assume the lady's brother) had enlisted and she and Mother had proudly waved as he marched away, although afterwards "Mother was quite overcome". There's quite a lot squashed onto the back of a smallish postcard and from what I can decipher she went on to say " he grew impatient with the wait for his 19th birthday before he was allowed to enlist. They all looked so young but we are reassured to know that he is with 5 friends who all enlisted together. We will pray every day for the safe and speedy return of all of these brave young men".

I've searched in vain for any 'follow-up' messages but have drawn a blank so far. I'd love to know what happened to him but, having no surname or anything it's nigh impossible.

Karmacat

Oh my word ... thats really something, CBC. And yes, I fully expect to have a lump in my throat at the ceremony, and at the memorials ... war cemeteries do that to me. I don't think you and I were in touch when I wrote about seeing the British soldiers' graves in Crete from World War II, when the buildup to the First Gulf War was on - there was a real sense of "its happening again", though fortunately for us, it didn't.

Thinking of your postcard, can you tell where it was posted, from the franking? There were what was called Pals Regiments, where whole villages or districts were encouraged to sign up together. The thinking was that morale would be improved - but it was a disaster when some regiments were particularly suffering in the front line, all the casualties came at once in one small area If you can see where it was posted, that might give you a clue as to which regiment, and you can see a regimental war diary (the greatwar site is amazing, but it will also signpost you further). Have you ever been to the national archives at Kew? Its addictive, I warn you

I'm snacking and listening to a guy called Peter Sage, he's on at Alternatives in London tonight, I think, good bloke.

Karmacat

:j Virgin chucking me off their services turns out to be really good for me :j

TalkTalk, who I've been automatically transferred to, offer me the same deal, with extras thrown in:
- voicemail (I have an answerphone, but why not?)
- caller ID
- 0845 and 0870 are included in the Call Anytime service
- £4 - £5 a month cheaper
- if I pay within 24 hours of their email giving me notice they're going to take the money from my account on the DD, they give me another 10% off! Which is £2.60 ... so for the months when I did that, its £5 - £7 cheaper.

:j Clever TalkTalk.

[Deleted User]

Thanks so much for your helpful reply, KC:A. I thought of the postmark being a starting point but it is very smudged and indistinct. The only way I dated it was by the fact the sender wrote the date at the top of her message. I've tried with all sorts of magnifiers but just can't make the postmark out. Aunt Charlotte (to whom it was sent) had a London address but even her surname was a bit difficult to decipher:(. Early 20th century handwriting can be beautiful but this example is extremely intricate and flamboyant! The postcard picture gives no clue either, it was a view of Edinburgh where she'd just spent a holiday.

On a slightly lighter note I remember my Dad taking my brother and I to the local park where the town's war memorial is. He was a bit tired and wanted a sit down in the garden surrounding it.So he sent my brother and I to find his name on the memorial! Being very young we had no idea that a memorial just lists dead people's names, nor did we have any idea of alphabetical order. He certainly got his desired rest, apparently we were gone ages diligently reading every single name on the very big monument:eek:. I probably insisted we read them all twice (I was a perfectionist as a child):o

Karmacat

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: thats a good story!

Sorry your postcard's at a dead end, though - its something you have to accept with family histories ...

Off out for a walk now

elantan

http://www.sunkettle.com/ is this what you have ?

Karmacat

Thats the one! $60 though? No! £25.50 delivered! I'm still sure it'll never repay itself financially, but for a prepper-lite like me, its ideal. And it's pretty (sorry) :rotfl: