I have always been a been fascinated by little history by which I mean the stories of those who seldom get into the history books.
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| Chronicles of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, 1919 |
So, at the Battle of the Somme history records the numbers who died, the regiments, battalions and units engaged in the fighting and the Generals behind the strategy, but seldom does it record the stories of the individuals.
But then how could it be otherwise given the vast numbers who participated?
All of which leads me to Great-Uncle Harry: A Tale of War and Empire by Michael Palin.
It has been playing out on Radio 4 all this week and comes in 15 minute instalments broadcast in five episodes.
“From the time, many years ago, when Michael Palin first heard that his grandfather had a brother, Harry, who was killed in the First World War, he was determined to find out more about him.
The quest that followed involved hundreds of hours of painstaking detective work. Michael dug out every bit of family gossip and correspondence he could.
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| "A Fag after the Fight", 1916 |
He walked the route Harry took on that fatal, final day of his life amid the mud of northern France. And as he did so, a life that had previously existed in the shadows was revealed to him.
A blend of biography, history, travelogue and personal memoir, Great-Uncle Harry is a compelling account of an ordinary man who led an extraordinary life.
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Producer: David Blount"
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
Location; The Great War and before
Pictures; cover of Chronicles of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, last edition, 1919, courtesy of Allan Dodson, and “A Fag after the Fight”, Daily Mail War Postcards, 1916, courtesy of David Harrop
*Great-Uncle Harry: A Tale of War and Empire by Michael Palin, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001qt6y/episodes/player
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