My maternal grandmother Florence Wills was born in Homerton, East London and was the youngest of four children of Samuel Wills and Emma Menella Wills née Harris. Flo's brother Tom Wills was an Observer in the newly-formed RAF, and before the youngest service was three weeks old he had been killed in action near Diksmuide, shot down by Leutnant zur See Heinrich Wessels, who apparently had the distinction of being the oldest pilot in the German Air Force.
The story that I heard from my aunt was that Tom's head was blown off, although evidently he was eventually identified, since he has a grave at Tyne Cot Cemetery, whereas so many are commemorated only as a name on one of the many panels. Tom left a wife and three small daughters, and although his elder brother Fred did return from the War after serving in the Army, he was severely shell-shocked, never worked again and was always rendered acutely nervous by fireworks or loud noises.
Thanks to the efforts of others I now have many details about a great-uncle whom I never knew, including a photograph of his gravestone and the number of his aircraft. His nephew (also Tom) born in 1921 served in the RAF in World War II, but survived. Like so many of us, when those who remembered the actual events were still there to pass on their memories, I never thought to ask the questions that now seem to me so obvious and essential.
So many years on from the harrowing events of the so-called "War to end all wars" and with the facility to access information at the click of a mouse, I'm also grateful for being able to find about some of those who at that time were the enemy.
"No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe....any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde" — John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions