Lives of the First World War

“MOVE! LOOK FORWARD” HE LOOSENS THE STRAP, HIS HEAD IS NUMB, IT SEEMS SO QUIET. IT LOOKS BAD. WHY NO PAIN? HE CRAWLS TO AN INCLINE. HERE HE CAN REST. A MARK ON HIS FOREHEAD: FOUR MEN TO TAKE HIM; THEY CURSE AS THEY GO; “BUT YOU’LL BE RIGHT” A STROKE ON HIS FOREHEAD, A STRANGE VOICE CALLS, AUSTRALIAN VOICES; HE WANTS TO GO HOME. HE CAN RECOVER; HE MUST SEE HIS SISTERS. HE WANTS TO RISE AND GO TO THE RIVER. HIS SPIRIT IS WILLING BUT HIS HAND WON’T MOVE. A certain amount of background is needed as this is an interpretation of what may have gone through the mind of Private H.J. Shanks (265855 Bucks Battalion, Ox & Bucks L.I.), who was involved in an action as part of the Battle of Langemark. We think that he was injured quite early that morning but lay on the battlefield until that evening, when it became possible to search for the wounded. He was taken to the 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Station in Brandhoek where he passed away on 17th August. He was very close to his younger sisters, and details of him coming home on leave in 1916, ( with kid gloves made in France for his sisters, as well as having to be scrubbed to take the mud off him), are the very details that one clings onto in order to connect to a person that they never knew but is remembered every day.

Created by: , Mike11837