Different Day

105 years ago today my Mothers uncle whom she never knew, but was fascinated by, died on the Western Front.

578 Private George Richard Roberts
7th Battalion, The East Surrey Regiment

George has no known grave and is remembered at Dud Corner Cemetery, just outside Calais.

There had been mortar attacks that day, and the mining and blowing up of British trenches by German tunnellers, it was also the first day that the German army used phosgene gas.
With no known grave I suspect that he may have been a victim of the explosions caused by tunnelling when men would have been buried.

I have this photo of George, his medal, his ‘Dead Mans Penny’ and his death certificate. What is not widely known is that in the first couple of years of WWI families received the dreaded telegram and it then fell upon the family to register the death of their loved one.
George’s death was registered at the Walton-on-Thames Registry Office, his cause of death reads “KIA Western Front”.

I have yet to visit Dud Corner, it is at the top of my ‘Bucket List’ and I hope to get there very soon.

On a more cheerful note today my son-in-law Manolo celebrates his birthday, I’m looking forward to seeing him soon, sitting in the sun and enjoying his company over a beer and some of the great food he serves up. The sixty-five odd miles means that for the last year they may well as been on the far side of the moon.
But we are getting there.