A moment of your time.

[Ron Abbott]

A considerable number of my close ancestors lost their lives in WW1, at Gallipoli, on the western front, at Gaza and at hospitals in England after being evacuated for wounds.

One was Pipe Corporal Adam Porteous of the 1st Bn. Royal Scots Fusiliers who was wounded three times in France/Flanders in 1915 and who subsequently died of his wounds in a hospital in England. A career soldier he had previously served in South Africa and in India.

Another was Private Thomas Abbott of the 1/7th Royal Scots who was killed at the 2nd Battle of Gaza on 19th April 1917. He had survived Gallipoli only to be killed in action later.

Alexander Downie was killed at Gallipoli in January 1916, probably as a result of shell fire; just as his battalion was evacuating.

Alexander Porteous was killed at the Somme and William Strathearn died in a Liverpool Hospital of wounds received on the western front.

And these are just some of the ancestors that I have researched......

Lest we forget......

[Theyoungkiltman]

The conditions which the brave soldiers faced were horrendous. We should never forget their bravery, tenacity and devotion.

[Calgacus]

We lit a candle in memory of those who fought and died.

[Pleater]

My grandmother was married with two children when her first husband was killed at the Somme. His body was never recovered.
She married again, as she thought - he was already married with two sons - a man who had been wounded at Mons, along with his brother who was in the same regiment.
She had their first child, a boy, but he and his half brother died in an outbreak of diphtheria.
Our family history was certainly shaped by the Great War.

We make most of Remembrance Sunday rather than acknowledging the start of hostilities.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[chemist93]

Like the rest of you, my grandfather John Galloway served in WWI. He came home in 1919. He didn't like to talk about it. My aunt had asked him once. He had PTSD, and like many of the rest drank some liquor and buried it in work.

[Dale-of-Cedars]

My grandfather survived the Great War; he was an Acting Sergeant - mentioned in dispatches- with the 24th Battalion (Victoria Rifles) CEF - 5th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Canadian Division - out of Montreal QC.
I never got to meet him before he passed, but my mother related he was attached to the division headquarters and worked on maps and aerial reconnaissance photos (one of them below) and so fought his war behind the lines with pencil, pen and ink.

Note: photo dated 16 August 1917, I'm guessing near Lens, France; according to the battalion war diaries.

[jhockin]

Some of you (esp. In Scotland) may already know this song, and singer, but I only just stubbled across it (and him), and thought this song fitting for this thread:

[tripleblessed]

I was hesitant to weigh in here, as this is a subject which has affected my life in particular and others in ways I can't and/or
possibly don't want to imagine. My grandfather served in the cavalry in various branches of service on and off for about 20
years. Went with Pershing to the Philippines, rode under his orders after Pancho Villa, and ended his career in France upon
severe damage eliminating a machine nest which had pinned down the boys he took over the top and was decimating them.
His left side, ankle to shoulder, had holes he didn't realize were there until later. His grateful government sent him home with no pension, no health care, and proceeded to lose the records. The only reason we know some of it is his younger brother landed in his unit in France as a replacement. A box of medals doesn't feed your kids, so my father spent much of his childhood with whoever in the family could feed him for a few weeks or months. The impact on my childhood is not possible to tell, nor would it be of interest.

My mother's uncle made it back here, but spent the next 66 years in and out of the Old Soldiers' Home in Mountain Home, Tennessee. Out when he could handle work, in when he couldn't.

A (very) distant cousin was killed at Gallipoli, with untold cost. Ernest Rutherford, for whom he worked, and Niels Bohr
and Hans Geiger, with whom he worked said more than once there would been at least one Nobel Prize, and probably more, had they succeeded in talking him out of enlisting. If this happened to my family, in the US, it has been clear to me from childhood that those
in Europe suffered worse; the possible gain from such activity is far out weighed by the costs.

I have enormous respect for all who serve, and none for those who choose to waste lives in fruitless pursuits. I am always appreciative of the remembrance of others similarly affected, and am frequently moved to tears by the efforts
of those in the battle areas to keep the memories alive and the graves in honorable order.

I've always prayed, "Never again", but leaders appear to be out of touch with all who pray, and with the Source in Whom
we all pray.

[Sturdy]

My Grandad Palmer was a Doughboy at Belleau Wood and acted as a messenger, we still have his steel pot which we just gave to the local museum.

[jhockin]

Really hoping, lately, that humankind has learned the lessons of history, so that, despite current events, we don't have another world war. I believe that the majority of people wish we would "make war no more".