« Reply #29 on: Thursday 04 October 18 13:16 BST (UK) »
I don't think any of us realise how difficult that time ( WW1) was for people unless we were alive at that time.
I spent lots of time as a child with my dads aunt and her husband, they never had children and she was very strict/rigid, he was such a kind and gentle man but I loved visiting them each and every Saturday on my own, having lunch with them, he taught me to play chess and encouraged me to draw. I always wondered why conversations stopped between he and my dad when I came into the room, later on to find out it was "WW1 talk". My dad died when I was 17, Great Uncle Fred lived for another 20 yrs it was only once I started FH I tried to find out/research his service records and found he was in some dreadful battles.... wish he could have told me.
.....and just recently I found an old local newsletter naming my maternal grandfathers brother and my great grandfather, he was asking for his son to be excused " as he was the only one on the farm who could work the horses" it was declined and he was told to sign up. Those snippets are a real window into day to day issues they faced.
Having previously researched animals in WW1 I knew many of those horses would have also been taken to use and most of them never came home, some eight million horses were used and only 60,000 returned. I know the horses on the farm were working and not 'pets' but they loved/looked after them and it would have been a huge loss to them.
Leicestershire:Chamberlain, Dakin, Wilkinson, Moss, Cook, Welland, Dobson, Roper,Palfreman, Squires, Hames, Goddard, Topliss, Twells,Bacon.
Northamps:Sykes, Harris, Rice,Knowles.
Rutland:Clements, Dalby, Osbourne, Durance, Smith,Christian, Royce, Richardson,Oakham, Dewey,Newbold,Cox,Chamberlaine,Brow, Cooper, Bloodworth,Clarke
Durham/Yorks:Woodend, Watson,Parker, Dowser
Suffolk/Norfolk:Groom, Coleman, Kemp, Barnard, Alden,Blomfield,Smith,Howes,Knight,Kett,Fryston
Lincolnshire:Clements, Woodend