World War One

A guest blog by Tony Long

As I write this ceremonies are being held remembering the start of World War 1, I’m not watching because I’d find it too emotional. I often think about the men and women caught up by, and severely affected by WWI and, of course, WWII. How disturbing that mankind had to number its world wars to differentiate between them.

What happened is history, talk about should it have happened, should this country have been involved etc. does little more than insult those who served and died – in my humble opinion.

There was nothing special about my grandfather joining up for the first war, almost every family, in every country that ‘took part’, would have been involved in some way. Grandfather was lucky, he joined the Durham Light Infantry (bit of a family tradition) and came back with most bits intact despite several injuries and having had what is euphemistically termed ‘a good war’; best of all, he came back.

He returned to the DLI the day the second war was declared and came home again, despite a serious wound which meant he only had to stand waist deep in water at the Dunkirk evacuation for most of a day – non-injured waited longer.

And he kept his hearing throughout both wars, which, considering the damage small arms and artillery fire can inflict on the delicate bits of the ear is amazing. Very fortunate as well for grandfather, as a talented musician hearing was his livelihood. Sadly, one life-effecting problem he returned from WWI with was alcohol dependency, something that wrecked his life and that of his family.

Apparently I saw him once, just after I’d been born so I have no memory, but I’ve been told he was delighted to have a grandson. Soon after that he left the family due to mutual consent and made a meagre living by playing in theatres and the like. He died alone. No one knows what happened to his belongings that would have included recording of when he was with famous bands and the medals he received.

Yet, he was comparatively lucky; Gunners servicing the artillery pieces would have been among the most affected by hearing loss and the destructive forces of concussion. One of the after effects of WWI could have been a young generation of deafened people, but it would have been too common to be noteworthy.

There’s a lot to remember and give respect to those who took part.