{"id":606,"date":"2014-08-03T19:02:58","date_gmt":"2014-08-03T18:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elainespires.co.uk\/journal\/?p=606"},"modified":"2014-08-03T19:02:58","modified_gmt":"2014-08-03T18:02:58","slug":"a-hundred-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elainespires.co.uk\/journal\/2014\/08\/a-hundred-years-on\/","title":{"rendered":"A Hundred Years On"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tomorrow marks the centenary of the outbreak of WWI. \u00a0There have been loads of activities with a WWI theme and yesterday I went to see Paper Planes, Havering’s Community Play, at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch. \u00a0Paper Planes tells the story of William Leafe Robinson, a pilot who was based at Sutton’s Farm Air Base, who was a real hero. \u00a0He survived being shot down and taken prisoner, being kept in solitary confinement and torture only to come back to England and then succumb to Spanish Flu. \u00a0Some cast members were stronger than others and the writing was weak in places but all in all I enjoyed the show, not least of all because one of my drama students was in it and the lead was the son of my friend Anette.<\/p>\n

And it has made me think again of the pain and suffering of my grandad, which I blogged about last November. \u00a0In his honour, and in memory of all the fallen – a whole generation of young men – here is the article again:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Dear Grandad<\/span><\/h1>\n
Posted on\u00a0
\n

Dear Grandad,<\/span><\/p>\n

Although you died many years before I was born and so we never ever met, I wanted to send this open letter to you to tell you just how proud \u00a0and how in awe I am of you and of your bravery.<\/span><\/p>\n

You see, Dad, that\u2019s your son Ron, never spoke much about you other than to say you worked hard and played hard and I now realise that he probably didn\u2019t know much about you because what happened to you in WWI you kept to yourself and didn\u2019t talk about. \u00a0Joanne, that\u2019s Stan\u2019s daughter, sent me a copy of your war record and reading it I realise why you never spoke about the past. \u00a0I cannot imagine, however, what you might have seen and experienced but can fully comprehend why, once the war was over, you chose to work and play hard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your record shows how you enlisted into the Royal Fusiliers in February 1915, leaving Nanny behind with, I think, two small children. \u00a0After training you were posted to the 8th Battalion in Flanders, engaging in the 2nd Battle of Ypres followed in early 1916 by the bayonet assault on the heavily fortified German Chord trenches at Hohenzollern where you were wounded and removed from the Company strength on 8th March 1916 and hospitalized in both France and England during your recovery, which took 5 months.<\/span><\/p>\n

As soon as you were fit enough, 3rd August 1916, you were sent back to join the 2nd Battalion and then to the defence of the wet, muddy killing fields of the Somme, enduring heavy gas attacks on 8th and 9th. \u00a0As the freezing winter months approached you took part in the heavy fighting over Christmas, being wounded again. \u00a0You lay in No-Man\u2019s Land for 3 days before being rescued. \u00a0What hell did you endure during that time? \u00a0What was going through your mind as you lay in agony with your fallen comrades all around you? \u00a0I cannot begin to imagine your pain, your despair and your fear.<\/span><\/p>\n

The records of your injuries were lost, but they were so severe that it took you eleven months to recover.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then, because they obviously thought you hadn\u2019t suffered enough, you were sent back to the Front once again, first to the 22nd Battalion then transfering to the 9th Batallion in Cambrai. \u00a0You were taken sick after 29 days and were removed from the Company strength, but not before engaging in combat at Sonnet Farm near Bandeaux.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once again, on February 2nd 1918 you returned to Front Line duties with the 3rd and then the 4th Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers. \u00a0You took part in combat all through that long summer until 11th September when the Germans launched an intense artillery barrage that included gas and it was this gas in the lungs that caused your withdrawal from the Front Line on 22nd September to the Woolwich Military Hospital in London. \u00a0After a specialised treatment you were sent to convalesce in a chest and lung sanitorium until finally on 20th February 1919 you were given a medical discharge and awarded the Silver Wounded Badge. \u00a0What on earth did you have to suffer to get a Gold one?<\/span><\/p>\n

Although you lived another twenty-three years, you were always a sick man and your injuries made you accessible to all kinds of infections, TB being the most severe and the one that finally caused your death.<\/span><\/p>\n

How can we, who never experienced it, even being to imagine, or give a name to the horrors you saw and the pain and suffering you lived through? \u00a0Is it any wonder you never wanted to talk about it?<\/span><\/p>\n

Pte G S\/12581 Albert William Spires \u2013 I am so very proud to be your grand-daughter and beyond sad that I never ever had the honour of meeting you and that all your children \u2013 \u00a0eleven of them in the end! \u2013 didn\u2019t really know the full story of all you endured.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am a huge pacifist, and I abhor the arguement that if you\u2019re pro-Remembrance you\u2019re pro-war.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wrote in my pevious blog that I will wear my poppy in remembrance and thanks that Dad and his brothers came back safely.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now I know your story, I will wear it even more proudly. \u00a0You were indeed, one of the Lions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your loving grand-daughter,<\/span><\/p>\n

Elaine xxx<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tomorrow marks the centenary of the outbreak of WWI. \u00a0There have been loads of activities with a WWI theme and yesterday I went to see Paper Planes, Havering’s Community Play, at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch. \u00a0Paper Planes tells the story … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elainespires.co.uk\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elainespires.co.uk\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elainespires.co.uk\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elainespires.co.uk\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elainespires.co.uk\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.elainespires.co.uk\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":607,"href":"https:\/\/www.elainespires.co.uk\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions\/607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elainespires.co.uk\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elainespires.co.uk\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elainespires.co.uk\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}