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Not like the other stories but proud of him anyway. My grandad got this in France 1918. Got a photo somewhere but everything boxed away right now.

Chuck wrote:Not like the other stories but proud of him anyway. My grandad got this in France 1918. Got a photo somewhere but everything boxed away right now.

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Chuck, you are dead right to be proud of you granddad. When I attempted to interest my nephews in the events around the death of my great uncle at Loo's 13th October 1915 they were completely unmoved. The reaction being. ''That's ancient history''. I am proud of him, and my grandad who served on the western Front from 1914-1918.
Needless to say (but I am going to say it) I am immensely proud of my fathers 45 years service to the Crown. I was never more proud than when I was allowed to accompany him to Buckingham palace for his investiture of his DFM.

Jenks

My Grandfather also served in the Royal Engineers from 1915 to 1919, he was a mule driver, he never discussed what he did or saw with his family and consequently I know nothing about this part of his life

My mother has told me a few things such as the first bridge they built for horses to cross was a disaster as the horses just walked off the side of the bridge, so after that they would place wood on either side to either give the horses something to walk between, or to stop them seeing the water.

He stood on a ridge and witnessed the last great Canadian Cavalry charge which I assume was the one at Moreuil Wood on 30 March 1918 when 1000 men on horse back charged the German guns. Such a sad thought, to send Cavalry into the guns as late as 1918, you would have thought some one had learnt by then, in my inexperienced mind it was very little short of a war crime, they shot shell shocked soldiers for cowardice and yet condoned these actions.

I will stop now. :(

Interestingly Mother maintains that he never killed a man during the time he was in France and Belgium.

You are right to be proud.
I am still trying to find out if any of my family were involved in any of our many conflicts. I don't really have too many people left to ask. I know my granddad was in the RAMC but I don't know where he served, he died in 1945 leaving my dad orphaned. I know his uncle was in the Cycle Corps, saw his medals before they were passed on to his great grandson.

Nice one Chuck.

Cheers folks, found loads a trench art in the mementos box. My old boy was with the Signals in WW2, he didn't see combat (was selected for para training then they stopped fighting) but he ended up in Germany as part of the occupation forces.