My mother died last year and in the last few weeks, my siblings and I have been clearing the family house for sale. Amongst the odd bits and pieces we turned up were a couple of photo albums which my father had assembled of old family pictures including a few of my Grandfather Walter during his military service as a volunteer in WW1.
My Grandfather was born in Newbridge on Wye in 1886 as the seventh son of an innkeeper and small scale farmer. He went to London in the early 1900s to 'seek his fortune' and got a job as a sales assistant at John Lewis's department store on Oxford Street, where he met my Grandmother (whose father owned London's first vegetarian restaurant which was nearby). In 1914 he volunteered for the QVR (which was the central and east London TA infantry battalion) and got to France around the back-end of 1915. He was promoted quite quickly, making it to platoon sergeant in time for the Somme and was commissioned in the field, into the 7th [I think] (City of London) Fusiliers early in 1917. He commanded an infantry platoon for a while, but by mid-1918 was commanding a platoon in his divisional trench mortar company. In October 1918, he was awarded the MC for taking one of his mortars out of cover and personally knocking out a series of German machine gun positions which were holding up the British advance.
After the Armistice, he spent some time in Belgium but wasn't tempted by the military life. He took his gratuity, married my Grandmother, and bought a draper's shop in Builth Wells which he ran until he retired in the late 1940s. Oddly enough, although he was a largely self-educated draper, both of his sons were PhD-level scientists: my uncle was 'Head of Radiation' at AWRE Aldermaston; my father was College Tutor and Senior Warden at Imperial College London.
My Grandfather was born in Newbridge on Wye in 1886 as the seventh son of an innkeeper and small scale farmer. He went to London in the early 1900s to 'seek his fortune' and got a job as a sales assistant at John Lewis's department store on Oxford Street, where he met my Grandmother (whose father owned London's first vegetarian restaurant which was nearby). In 1914 he volunteered for the QVR (which was the central and east London TA infantry battalion) and got to France around the back-end of 1915. He was promoted quite quickly, making it to platoon sergeant in time for the Somme and was commissioned in the field, into the 7th [I think] (City of London) Fusiliers early in 1917. He commanded an infantry platoon for a while, but by mid-1918 was commanding a platoon in his divisional trench mortar company. In October 1918, he was awarded the MC for taking one of his mortars out of cover and personally knocking out a series of German machine gun positions which were holding up the British advance.
After the Armistice, he spent some time in Belgium but wasn't tempted by the military life. He took his gratuity, married my Grandmother, and bought a draper's shop in Builth Wells which he ran until he retired in the late 1940s. Oddly enough, although he was a largely self-educated draper, both of his sons were PhD-level scientists: my uncle was 'Head of Radiation' at AWRE Aldermaston; my father was College Tutor and Senior Warden at Imperial College London.
