Epitaphs of the Great War

[River Tyne Lass]

Hi Everyone,

I have recently discovered this great website which gives very interesting information about epitaphs of people killed in the Great War.  My own ancestor Jacob Conroy who was killed on 25 September 1915 is also on there: 

http://www.epitaphsofthegreatwar.com/

[Viktoria]

Thankyou,what an interesting site.
Viktoria.

[sami]

Very interesting, Thank you for posting.

sami

[Treetotal]

Thanks for sharing...I will pass it on.
Carol

[a-l]

Thanks for posting it is fascinating.

[River Tyne Lass]

Thank you all for your feedback.  I am glad to hear that others find this site interesting too. I am so glad that someone took the time to research all these epitaphs.  As a keen family historian, it was fascinating to read the information on one of my own ancestors - Jacob Conroy.  

[Viktoria]

Well as it is the hundredth anniversary of Paschendaele  here`s one, for every soldier who fell in
that terrible conflict, WW1
from "Death of a Hero" by Richard Aldington.
You have to do a bit of arithmetic, the book was written in 1929, eleven years after the end of WW1.Also that the Trojan war lasted 10 years.
Epitaph.
Eleven years after the fall of Troy,
We, the old men-some of us nearly forty-
Met and talked on the sunny ramparts, over our wine,while the lizards scuttled in the dusty grass
 and the crickets chirred.
Some spoke of the heartbeat in the din of battle, others of the thirst-dry in the throat.
.
Others bared  their wounds, the light gone from their eyes and the grey thick in their hair.
And I sat a little apart from the old warriors and garrulous talk,
 I heard a boy of about twenty say petulantly to his girl, Oh come away, why do you stand there
open mouthed, listening to the talk of old men. Haven`t we heard enough of old wars and dull forgotten battles and people we never knew?
And he pulled her to him and kissed her, and later I heard her gay  distant laughter as he heaped more scorn on us, being now out of hearing
The talk still clashed about me like the meeting of blade on blade--
And I thought of the graves by desolate Troy, and the beauty of many young men now dust.
And I too walked away in an agony of grief and pity.

Not very glorious but by 1929 many people were tired of hearing about he war and wished to move on.
There were many of course who could not.No grave to tend , sometimes no exact place or date  of death and too often no body yet found.
How do people move on when there is no real "closure"?

The ten years of the battle and eleven years since its end give twenty one.
Twenty one from the "nearly forty " of the old men gives eighteen/ nineteen, just the age of our youngest  men when conscripted.
I love this epitaph but it does sum up the period -1920s`- when some people wanted to move on and in this rather hedonistic period seemed to have forgotten about the war. Or perhaps that was their way of coping.
I always feel it should end --"In an agony of grief and ANGER"
I may have misquoted slightly, my WW1 books are still unpacked as yet from the move.
Thanks again for letting us know bout the site.Viktoria.

[River Tyne Lass]

Thank you for your post Viktoria which I have read with interest.  Perhaps, this was a coping strategy of some people who found it difficult to contemplate the large scale loss of life, physical and mental damage which came about because of the Great War. 

In my own area, North Tyneside, I have come across the history of a  young boy called Randal Bennion who was killed in the Great War when he was only 16 years of age.  Apparently, he was only 15 when he joined up.  A local newspaper of this time reported that he was able to do this was because of his physical size.  However, his photograph which was printed in the newspaper shows someone who looks extremely young.    

[Viktoria]

Yes, it would seem a great adventure to a young lad, no one could have imagined just how  bad it would be. The mud and water filled trenches, static, with nothing to show for such heavy casualities.
The jingoism which made emotional blackmail seem O.K.
Julian Grenfell, whose family lost so many of their fine young men said in a letter home just before he was killed, "War is like a pic-nic"He took his dogs with him !!!
To very poor lads and men the offer of three meals a day, free clothing and a roof over their head
and in many cases escape from large families, with pay, would seem like a holiday.
Where would we be today I wonder if all their skills, talent and intelligence had not ben lost on the battlefields of Belgium, France, Turkey Italy .
Our native population would have been considerably greater for sure.
It is all so unbelievable,  yet we know it is true.
It moves me to tears very regularly.
                                                        Viktoria.