Lives of the First World War

known 9th December 1917

He left school at 14, joined Territorials at 15. When the war broke out he was only 16. His older step brother John, was in the Rifle Brigade and was sent to serve in India. He was 18 when he went to France with the 2/20th London. His older Brother Reg, went to France about the same time as him with the 1/20th London. He was 5 months in the trenches in France. Reg was posted missing on the Somme after only 15 weeks at the front. His unit then moved to Macedonia and spent 3 months [over the winter] before he became ill. He spent the next 8 months in hospital/recovering in Malta missing his unit’s transfer to Egypt. His mother died of cancer in late 1917, he would have got this news at about the same time that his brother Reg was now assumed dead [as about a year had passed since he was declared missing], all this at about the same time as he returned to the front in Egypt. My Gran always said this was all too much for him and ‘he went over the top and dun himself in’. He was killed in the battle for Jerusalem aged 19, he had only been 3 weeks at the front.

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