This page will have stories of interest leading up to the First World War
JUNE 1914. The world was in turmoil for many reasons. There is an arms race in Europe and a grim prospect of this leading to war but thousands of workers from miners to cricket ball makers were on strike for decent wages. The Suffragettes are still agitating for the vote. Sylvia Pankhurst was recently arrested for the eighth time while on a march. Civil war seems likely in the Balkans. Unrest in Albania and Serbia. The Kaiser launches the worlds biggest ship to date the liner Bismark. Still compensating for the lack of something?
Christmas Day 1914 and one of the most famous lulls in fighting occurred when on some sectors of the front soldiers met in no-mans land to wish each other a merry Christmas, exchange gifts and play football. Also to bury their dead. Senior officers were against this and it never happened again on a large scale. A great opportunity lost.
Christmas Day 1914 and one of the most famous lulls in fighting occurred when on some sectors of the front soldiers met in no-mans land to wish each other a merry Christmas, exchange gifts and play football. Also to bury their dead. Senior officers were against this and it never happened again on a large scale. A great opportunity lost.
World War One – a Family History
Almost every day we hear or read in the media of a story about individuals who were involved in some way or another
in the Great War and doubtless many more will be told over the next four years. These accounts do help us to try to
understand what it must have been like at a personal level and about the attitudes and feelings of the nation at the
time. There must be many stories which could be told about local individuals and most families will have some
information about their members who were involved in this conflict.
In recent years, like many people, I have researched my family history and there are two stories which I can relate
about men who were engaged in military service at that time. Both were relatives of my mother and were West Norfolk
men.
The first was an uncle of my mother, who in fact I knew when I was a youngster and before he died in the fifties.
When I first discovered his army records these showed that he enlisted in the Norfolk Regiment on 3rd September
1901. He came from a small village in West Norfolk and his occupation was given as Footman. However, the records
also showed that on 2nd November 1901 he was discharged “having made a mistatement as to age on attestation”.
He was born in 1885 but declared he was 18 years and 6 months. Why did he want to join the army so much?
After the war broke out he enlisted on 8th April 1915 as a private in the Army Service Corps. His occupation was a
Baker and he was attached to the 43rd Field Bakery. He served in France transferring to the Manchester Regiment
until the end of the war. During that time he came home on leave and also was hospitalised because of appendicitis
and a chest illness. The family story about this was that it was because of a gas attack in which he was involved.
I believe that although he worked in agriculture after the war he was never a fully fit man, no doubt as a result of his
war experience.
The other story is about a cousin of my mother, the nephew of the uncle in my first account. He was born in 1898
and lived with his parents in King’s Lynn. He was employed as an assistant post man and had worked for the Post
Office as a telegraph boy since he was 12 ½. He had also been a corporal in the Tower Street Company of the Boy’s
Brigade.
He joined the army in February 1917. He enlisted, as did many of his work colleagues, in the 2/8th (City of London)
Battalion (Post Office Rifles), London Regiment as a Rifleman and went to France at the beginning of October 1917.
On 30th October 1917 he was killed in action. The letter which his parents received about his death from his
commanding officer stated that he was killed instantly during an attack on the German lines. This action was one of
the final battles of Passchendaele and along with many other victims he has no known grave.
He is commemorated on the war memorial in Tower Gardens, King’s Lynn and on the King’s Lynn Post Office Roll of
Honour. This memorial is now in the entrance to the sorting office in Austin Fields. The other commemoration is on
the Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, Belgium.
About two years ago we were on holiday in France and had a stopover in Lille. Whilst there we drove the short
distance into Belgium and visited the Tyne Cot Memorial. It is hard to imagine the horror and devastation which must
have existed there when it was a battlefield. The cemetery today is a beautiful and peaceful place set in the
countryside. The Memorial bears the names of almost 35,000 men whose graves are not known. There are also
11,952 Commonwealth servicemen buried there of which 8,365 are unidentified. It is the largest Commonwealth war
cemetery in the world. There is also a small museum there in which the recorded names and photographs of victims
are read out and displayed.
Whilst there we went into the small town of Zonnebeke where there is a very interesting museum devoted to the
Passchendale battles. There are many artefacts and records there which attempt to show what conditions were like.
Similar stories to the ones I have related will undoubtedly be told over the next four years and which will show how
the horror of the “War to End All Wars” affected the everyday lives of ordinary families.
Mike Cooke
Almost every day we hear or read in the media of a story about individuals who were involved in some way or another
in the Great War and doubtless many more will be told over the next four years. These accounts do help us to try to
understand what it must have been like at a personal level and about the attitudes and feelings of the nation at the
time. There must be many stories which could be told about local individuals and most families will have some
information about their members who were involved in this conflict.
In recent years, like many people, I have researched my family history and there are two stories which I can relate
about men who were engaged in military service at that time. Both were relatives of my mother and were West Norfolk
men.
The first was an uncle of my mother, who in fact I knew when I was a youngster and before he died in the fifties.
When I first discovered his army records these showed that he enlisted in the Norfolk Regiment on 3rd September
1901. He came from a small village in West Norfolk and his occupation was given as Footman. However, the records
also showed that on 2nd November 1901 he was discharged “having made a mistatement as to age on attestation”.
He was born in 1885 but declared he was 18 years and 6 months. Why did he want to join the army so much?
After the war broke out he enlisted on 8th April 1915 as a private in the Army Service Corps. His occupation was a
Baker and he was attached to the 43rd Field Bakery. He served in France transferring to the Manchester Regiment
until the end of the war. During that time he came home on leave and also was hospitalised because of appendicitis
and a chest illness. The family story about this was that it was because of a gas attack in which he was involved.
I believe that although he worked in agriculture after the war he was never a fully fit man, no doubt as a result of his
war experience.
The other story is about a cousin of my mother, the nephew of the uncle in my first account. He was born in 1898
and lived with his parents in King’s Lynn. He was employed as an assistant post man and had worked for the Post
Office as a telegraph boy since he was 12 ½. He had also been a corporal in the Tower Street Company of the Boy’s
Brigade.
He joined the army in February 1917. He enlisted, as did many of his work colleagues, in the 2/8th (City of London)
Battalion (Post Office Rifles), London Regiment as a Rifleman and went to France at the beginning of October 1917.
On 30th October 1917 he was killed in action. The letter which his parents received about his death from his
commanding officer stated that he was killed instantly during an attack on the German lines. This action was one of
the final battles of Passchendaele and along with many other victims he has no known grave.
He is commemorated on the war memorial in Tower Gardens, King’s Lynn and on the King’s Lynn Post Office Roll of
Honour. This memorial is now in the entrance to the sorting office in Austin Fields. The other commemoration is on
the Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, Belgium.
About two years ago we were on holiday in France and had a stopover in Lille. Whilst there we drove the short
distance into Belgium and visited the Tyne Cot Memorial. It is hard to imagine the horror and devastation which must
have existed there when it was a battlefield. The cemetery today is a beautiful and peaceful place set in the
countryside. The Memorial bears the names of almost 35,000 men whose graves are not known. There are also
11,952 Commonwealth servicemen buried there of which 8,365 are unidentified. It is the largest Commonwealth war
cemetery in the world. There is also a small museum there in which the recorded names and photographs of victims
are read out and displayed.
Whilst there we went into the small town of Zonnebeke where there is a very interesting museum devoted to the
Passchendale battles. There are many artefacts and records there which attempt to show what conditions were like.
Similar stories to the ones I have related will undoubtedly be told over the next four years and which will show how
the horror of the “War to End All Wars” affected the everyday lives of ordinary families.
Mike Cooke