The war years

[Mr Smith]

This is a photo of my late father, he left the security of working
down the mines to join up as a regular with the DLI .He was a
radio operator and served in India and Burma, he was at Kohima.

[danet]

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of any family member in their uniform, although they are about, and I was talking to my late dad's cousin recently at a funeral, (she is about 70) and mentioned she saw a photo of a great uncle wearing much the same colour and wrap around type leggins as in your photo Mr. Smith. She can't remember who it was that had the photo I would just love to get a copy of that photo. He is the one (along with some others) that was in the US Marines and was accidentally killed at age 21, when a bomb exploded on board the ship. I have copies of his 4 sisters when they were younger, (one being my grandmother). My grandfather was nighted for something or rather he did during the 1st WW. I really haven't much of a clue. Only recently, like 9 years ago, I was sent a photo of my grandfather in his later years, wearing his war medals.....none of my other cousins, or even Uncles (grandfather's sons) had this photo......so you never know what will surface that has been stored and forgotten about. So I am making copies of some of these photos, with realted stories, to give to my cousins and their kids (most in their teens and twenties now).
One thing puzzles me, when at my Uncles funeral recently, his brother (my other uncle, and both being my dad's brothers)...well I gave him a copy of the photo of grandpa with the war medals on, and he had never seen this photo, and then got a bit upset about the medals and who it was that had them.
My grandmother passed away in her 60's, and sometime down the track, grandpa remarried and had a girl. Now she has the war medals, and Uncle Ron said the medals should be handed down to the youngest son and so forth.
I never thought of it like that. So what is everyone's opinion about the medals and where they should be in the family structure of things?

[westoelad]

I never thought of it like that. So what is everyone's opinion about the medals and where they should be in the family structure of things?

Families have different ways of deviding wealth when people d*e, and the only way to stop any type of internal fueding over possesions is for the person to leave a will.
I was left my mothers fathers medals and his gold watch and chain which is inscribed as being presented to him by his grand mother when he was twenty one when he died.
He did not leave a will and had three sons - my uncles - who in my opinion have more claim to them than myself. thankfully they are happy that I have them safe in my possesion and, as they have no family of their own the treasure would have been passed to me any way.

When my parents passed on they both left a will which I was executor of and it made things so much easier and eliminated any houghts of bickering.

[sherri]

Interesting socks there on your dad. MrSmith.
I love to look at the fashions of yesteryear.

[Mr Smith]

Interesting socks there on your dad. MrSmith.
I love to look at the fashions of yesteryear.

Socks and puttees sherri.
They are perfectly normal socks.

[sherri]

Interesting socks there on your dad. MrSmith.
I love to look at the fashions of yesteryear.

Socks and puttees sherri.
They are perfectly normal socks.

Ah so that is what puttees are.
seen the word before, never seen the actual things.
What on earth are they for? protection against mud?

[Mr Smith]

They come in all shapes and sizes sherri, in WWI they were
more like a thick bandage wrapped around the legs. They are
still in use today by hikers and many other outdoor pursuits.
Check on google images "puttees".

[westoelad]

One of these young men is Private Alexander O'Brien 3/8158 (there is no one left alive in the family that can indentify him) killed at the Somme October 1916 aged 25.
Recorded along with 72195 other unknown soldiers at The Thiepval Memorial, next to the village of Thiepval, off the main Bapaume to Albert Road.

[westoelad]

This picture shows the girls who made clothes the for the wealthy Belgium families just before the start of WWII.


And here the girls are enjoying a day out in the Ardennes area (later to be the theatre for the Battle of the Bulge)
Early summer 1939 before the German invasion.


Sadly, only one of the ladies in these photographs survived the war, all the others were taken away to concentration camps by the Germans never to return.
My mother in law escaped to the south of France, later to return to Brussels where she met her husband a liberating British soldier; married in a mass ceremony in Brussels and later that year returned to England with him where she still lives today at Ninety years young:


None of the family knew she had these photographs as she hardly ever talks about her days during the war.

[Mr Smith]

Very interesting photos and information, brings to life the reality of war and
very good quality photos.

Did you take them?

[westoelad]

Very interesting photos and information, brings to life the reality of war and
very good quality photos.

Did you take them?

Only the last one, the others were brought back to life courtesy of modern day technologies.

[Mr Smith]

Very interesting photos and information, brings to life the reality of war and
very good quality photos.

Did you take them?

Only the last one, the others were brought back to life courtesy of modern day technologies.

Just pulling your leg, I know you're old, but not that old.

These really are photos with a story behind them, excellent.

[danet]

That's really quite some story Westoelad, thank you for sharing, it has just made me look at the photos of those young women with such awe, knowing that only one survived, it's very tragic, and as Mr. Smith said, brings the reality of what war was like.

That photo of your MIL, she looks amazing, and has the most beautiful manicured nails. Hard to believe she is 90
It must be a painful memory for her to have to have ever wanted to look at those photos, because of what had happened.

[Blue...]

hell... excellent story... with pictures too!!

[Blue...]

Ok here it is

so did these people help your father?

[Mr Smith]

Here's another sad story from WWII. A friend in Italy had no photo with his mother and father
on it together. So he asked if I could do one for him from two individual photos of each of them. This was done about four years ago and here is the result, I could probably do it a lot
better today than I did back then.
The story of it is, the husband went off to war; leaving behind his wife and two sons. He was never seen again and they never ever found out what had happened to him. His wife never
remarried and raised her sons and looked after their land single handed.

[danet]

There are similar sad stories on our side of the family like that too, very hard times for those people. That is a really nice photo putting them together like that Mr. Smith, it must be very heart warming for the widow and her children to have this precious photo. It's quite amazing how we can now do that, take people out of photos, or add missing people to photos, I was doing something like that, when photo shop first came out, I was being shown how to do it, but since forgotten, as I never had any photos of just my OH and I with our parents on our wedding day, something the "professional photographer" seemingly overlooked So to take out all the rest of the persons from that one and only group photo, and bring the parents in closer to the wedded couple, I actually printed and cut out the photos and put them together, and unless you look close up, you can't tell.....but now, it is so much more refined to be able to do that, so, one day, I will do it properly, but truly, I need to learn more about photo shopping, and that will be my next big thing to do, up till now, I just use the easy cheap or free versions of photo manipulators/enhancers.

I really wish I had a photo of my father-in-law's mother, (my kids great grandma) as her husband died at age 40, leaving her to work the farm and raise 5 children, the youngest being 8 months old, (my FIL) and then, some 5 years later, the mother died of a broken heart, so that left the young ones to fend for themselves, and the older ones ended up going to war, some never heard of again, and others just disappeared to different lives. It's the way how things were like that. it can either pull families together, or tear them apart.

[Mr Smith]

danet, the widow never ever saw that photo, she died many, many years ago, but
the two sons are over the moon with it and were very emotional when I presented
them with A3 size copies, which now hang in pride of place in their respective homes.