Sunday, July 28, 2024

110th Anniversary of the start of World War 1

 

This morning I walked with Gill from Stratford to Sutton House in Hackney. Sutton House is a Tudor manor built in 1535, owned by the National Trust and is the oldest residential building in East London.

It is well worth a visit and I will post upon it another time. I noticed outside the building that there is a plaque remembering that Sutton House was bought by the National Trust in the 1930s with the proceeds of a bequest made by William Alexander Robertson in memory of his two brothers killed in World War I.

Today is the 110th anniversary of the start of World War 1. Above is one of my favourite pictures of my Welsh maternal Grandfather (Taid), Frederick John Matthews MC, who served in that war from 1915-1918. He is seated next to one of his brothers (whose name I am trying to confirm). It is incredible that he survived front line trench warfare in Gallipoli, Belgium and France. Our family was very lucky but so many others like the Robertson's were not. 

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