World War left many children without fathers. It ended 93 years ago, but time heals the pain? Richard van Emden called the son and daughters of the Great War dead
World War
left 360,000 orphans. Very few survive, the youngest 90. These are the last of those who lost his father in the trenches of the Western Front, on the beaches of Gallipoli or the deserts of the Middle East. Their stories of suffering and loss are as valid as those of soldiers, but were largely ignored. Here, six of them speak of the effects on their lives of losing their parents so young. General Donald
General Donald
father died of wounds near Arras in 1917, leaving a widow and two young children. Donald is 98.was five years old when my father came home on leave. I sat on the neck of your foot, and is used to keep their hands and going to rock up and down. He was in his army uniform and he could smell the snuff as Khaki and smoked a pipe. Then I remember I was on his shoulder.
I remember the day we heard [his death] clearly. Mother and I were in the hallway when the bell rang. I hid behind her as she was handed an envelope. I remember she opened the letter immediately. I do not know what to say, but she screamed and collapsed on the floor. I did not know what was wrong.
Mother stayed in her room for about 10 days and then returned to his side and said, "Your father is dead, not coming back. Now you are the man of the house. "And I said," I, mother? "I was five. It changed my life - I had
I see my brother and I take care of my mother ... I accepted everything. Of course, I lost my childhood, but never had I felt because I had to look after my family and I felt 10 feet tall.
On November 11, 1920, I was with my mother and my brother at the Cenotaph, when released by the king. I remember that no one dared move, nobody wanted to move. He was the Cenotaph bright, spotlessly clean. My mother stayed with his arm around our two children and she cried, and I stood there stunned.
I can not forget that day. I felt for my mother and I never had to deal with these feelings before.
In World War II, he joined the Royal Air Force. Once we critically close to crashing. At this point, it crossed my mind that my wife would have a pension of Sergeant in which to live. Later, I was tortured by the knowledge that had come dangerously close to leaving my children, and about the same age when my father died and left my brother and me.
At the end of the war, he wanted to remain in service. I went back to talk to my wife, I said about this work. She never said anything until I finished. "Well, love," she says, "both children need their father." Now, how can I answer that when I've never had a father? I could not sign for four years. I would like, but kids come first right?
Donald visited the grave of his father in France in 2007 and said: "I am old, I'm supposed to be hard. I thought it was hard, but I'm not. He is my father. I miss him. I miss him as a child and I miss him like an old man. It is very important that I'm back. I feel closer now than I was. This time I took to bed for the last time and that next time. " Clara Middletonfather of Clara Middleton, Richard Whitfield, died of his injuries in hospital in 1917. It is 104.
"Your father was injured and he is very ill -. It is in the leg, a sniper shot him, "Of course, the mother was crying when we got the news. We were going every two months to see him at the hospital in Nottingham, and it was horrible. When Dad died, everything went crazy. Mother went out and walked down the hall on the side of the house like crazy.
Mother knew that the money did not prevent them from entering, so they went to school and obtained permission for me to stay home until the youngest child went to school. So I stayed home and took care of her and took care of others. I used to do everything at home because my mother worked very hard, six days a week. There was no one else to do what I did and enjoyed. Do not miss school because he knew what he was doing was right.
I was a slave. I went to work for this lady, cleaning. I was just a kid and I have to wash the floor and a few large steps back and gave me two shillings for her, as I got was 100 pounds. People used to have my interview for them and my mother had let me go because I wanted money.
old hands who had managed in 10 years because I was using baking soda in water and it was terrible for the hands, and it would be so painful. I used to have Vaseline and rub it but people say it was his own urine was best for hands -. Tingling in the hands of his act, but it was good Mother was so happy he was to save money and look after the family, but it does not show it. It was a hard, tough, but I knew the old and enjoy it. I was proud and loved it, but I am old. George Musgrave
George Musgrave's father, Alfred, died of his injuries in 1917. He is 96.
when he was injured, my father wrote to my mother, sending your best love and kisses "to you and the little boy," and the mother went to see it. I could barely talk about what he saw there, go to the hospital, but she says the men demanded to see an English woman, a civilian.
After his death, he received a letter from the War Office sent the rest of their possessions. They came in a package wrapped in brown paper and soon included his gold watch chain hanging out of the paper. He had arrived in the mail and had not stolen. It was a vivid memory I had.
It has a small pension, but the amount was negligible - has never replaced the father brought the money and, of course, had to pay the rent and the landlord to keep an eye on me while was absent. mother was a seamstress and is very well come a time when all the other kids at school had long pants. She went to the office in the corner of the room. I had saved my father's pants, adapting them to fit me. Drainage tubes were, fashion, and I was the laughingstock of the school. No other children wanted to know my difficulties, and so I went into my shell. I do not want to be seen. I felt that I had no one to talk, so I had to fend for herself. I grew up a separated child playing on the floor, I had my own world, so I can retire at the age that I grew up Each Armistice Day, mother black dress, with maybe a white shirt and medals from my father. A brunette has come and we would like to see all vehicles stop, and all the horses and chariots and all the people there, and the two of us look to our room on the son of tram and trolleybus and shed a tear and grab me and say, "You are everything to me."
All tangible
The father of Charles Chilton , also Charles, was killed in action in 1918. Later, co-wrote Oh, What A Lovely War Joan Littlewood. He is 94.
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