Now I count our family lucky, in that of the seven direct family members who marched off to the Western Front all returned safely and lived out their lives dying in comfortable old age.
There are of course a few caveats. Great Uncle Roger returned to Canada having served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force and disappears from the records sometime after 1925.
And our great grandfather Montague never made it to the Western Front dying in 1916 aged just 48.
To these there are the German members of the family of whom we know nothing other than that some will have served in the Imperial Forces of Germany during the conflict.
All of which opens up that thoughts on what military records from the Great War have survived.
In our case the answer is not a lot.
Of the seven we do have the entire set of service records of great uncle Roger a few for our great grandfather, the discharge papers of my granddad, two photographs and a few letters.
Not much I grant you.
For four of them it will simply be that their military records were destroyed by enemy action during the Blitz of the Second World War ...... a sort of revenge act by Mr Hitler.
Great uncle Roger’s survived because as a member of the C.E.F., they were held in Canada.
But we do have the army records of great grandfather Montague when he served with the East Lancs Regiment from 1886 till 1892.
They are a detailed set and cover his time in hospital, his conduct and his tours of duty.
We even have a picture of him in the uniform of the West Kents in which he served from the outbreak of the war till his death two years later.
We are lucky in that we know something of all seven but how much more I wish we could access.
Picture; Montague Hall, circa 1914 and metal notepad case, circa 1914, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
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| Great grandfather Montague, circa 1914 |
And our great grandfather Montague never made it to the Western Front dying in 1916 aged just 48.
To these there are the German members of the family of whom we know nothing other than that some will have served in the Imperial Forces of Germany during the conflict.
All of which opens up that thoughts on what military records from the Great War have survived.
In our case the answer is not a lot.
Of the seven we do have the entire set of service records of great uncle Roger a few for our great grandfather, the discharge papers of my granddad, two photographs and a few letters.
 |
| Family notebook holder, circa 1914 |
For four of them it will simply be that their military records were destroyed by enemy action during the Blitz of the Second World War ...... a sort of revenge act by Mr Hitler.
Great uncle Roger’s survived because as a member of the C.E.F., they were held in Canada.
But we do have the army records of great grandfather Montague when he served with the East Lancs Regiment from 1886 till 1892.
They are a detailed set and cover his time in hospital, his conduct and his tours of duty.
We even have a picture of him in the uniform of the West Kents in which he served from the outbreak of the war till his death two years later.
We are lucky in that we know something of all seven but how much more I wish we could access.
Picture; Montague Hall, circa 1914 and metal notepad case, circa 1914, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
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