The recent death of the last surviving British World War One veteran Harry Patch has I think made many of us stop and stare for least a moment or two. There is a real sense that we have witnessed the end of a historical era.The last living unwilling British participant and witness of trench warfare in the so-called Great War has now died.
Harry was a plumber who was conscripted into the army and fought in the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. After months of combat he was wounded in a shell explosion which killed 3 of his close friends. More than 70,000 British troops died in this one awful battle. By the time that Harry was fully recovered from his wound the war was over.
My Taid (my welsh grandfather, my mum’s dad) also served in the First World War. Like Harry, he was a machine gunner in the trenches. His division (The Fighting 63rd - Royal Naval Division) also fought at Passchendaele where they lost 2,000 men. I am not sure if my Taid was at this battle since he never talked about this or any of his war experiences (he volunteered in 1915). He had won a Military Cross shortly before the battle. Ironically this award which was for risking his life to capture a German machine gun post and sizing forty prisoners may have actually saved him. Since military records show he was given leave for the investiture at Buckingham Palace at the height of the Battle.
I remember my Taid even though he died when I was 7. My memory is of a very gentle man in a wheelchair reading me aloud childish children’s stories with great relish.
His Military Cross and picture of him as a young confident solider held absolute pride of place in the living room of my Nain’s Council flat in Denbigh. It was next to the “Certificate of Honour” from his home town of Abercarn. A copy of which I stare at now.
Goodbye then Harry Patch, if there is an afterlife, (which sadly of course I doubt) then hopefully my Taid, your comrade at arms, Frederick John Matthews, will be there to welcome you with your long lost mates.
Shall we shed a tear or two at the thought of that meeting?
3 comments:
Dear John
Dear John
With respect to your grand dad I would like to add, if there were no borders, people could travel free, and people never needed to go to war. The world would be more peaceful and there would be less poverty and more equality. I do not see why countries have to spend enormous amount of wealth on arms and weapons and employ young people to shoot one another.
Hi Fridoun
I'm not sure that not having borders will resolve all problems but you are quite right that the more internationalist we are the more peaceful we will be.
However, I do believe that some battles are worth fighting (and dying) for.
Hi John,
Gandhi once said that there was many causes that he would die for, And not one he would kill for, What a great man he was..
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