Dulce et Decorum Est...

Bound for glory? I think not.

I've been meaning to get this shot for a while, since noticing that the local library had a small display of Great War memorabilia including a photograph labelled First of the WW1 recruits leaving Goodwick. As you can see, it shows a early motor vehicle packed with young, and older men, setting off from a familiar location in the centre of Fishguard's 'twin town', a short distance round the bay.

One hundred years later the intersection is little changed: the large building in view has lost its chimneys and small upper window, but the house on the right is much the same. In the old photo it's possible to see several women watching from the front terrace and leaning out of upstairs windows, perhaps watching the departure of friends and relatives. (These young men would likely have been engaged in work on the land or the sea or the railway locally.)

Where the cars now pass on the hill a horse-drawn cart stands in the road laden with agricultural materials - no driver is visible. To the left a couple of boys look on - will they be old enough to become cannon fodder before the carnage ends?

The original photo (see a clearer version here , third image down) was probably taken in late August or early September 1914 when the initial wave of enthusiasm for enlisting reached its height following the battle of Mons (although 2 out of every 5 recruits were found to be unfit owing to poor health.)
One has to wonder how many of these lads ever returned to Goodwick and if they did whether they would have been left crippled like the man on crutches who happened to hobble into my present-day shot.

On the same theme, I see there's a commemoration project centred on the subject of this blip of mine at Paddington station, the other end of the railway line that ends in Goodwick. Read about it here.