11.11.11

I am not sentimental when it comes to war dead. It is sad that any family has to lose a son or husband, but joining up is what they wanted to do.
I do wear a poppy though every year because I want to thank the men and women who, from Spain onwards fought the Fascists until world war two was won.
When it comes to world war one my feelings differ because of my great uncle, who was a member of the B.E.F. from 1911 onwards, he somehow managed to live through the whole war, first seeing action at the retreat of Mons, before he went on to Gallipoli, Ypres and a load more 'actions' without getting a scratch, despite his battalion getting decimated over and over again. By the wars end he had been in so many decimated and regrouped regiments that it looked like he was receiving divine aid.
When the war with Germany was over most people assume that was it, no more fighting. What is little known is that the British army, along with others from allied countries were sent to Russia to fight alongside the 'White Russians' against Trotsky's Red army. My Great uncle went there and carried on fighting until 1921 when he got a 'Blighty one' as they were called, (which is ironic since he was Irish), but home he went. upon his return he went to the war office and applied for a war pension, he had after all enlisted before the war and had fought continuously for eight years, yet the response for all those years of effort, and the fact that he was now wounded so could not work properly, was a refusal for an army pension.
Thankfully this stupid decision was soon overturned, and he received if not his due recognition then at least a pension.
Sadly, the only thing the family have left of him is his pension sheet, typed on wafer thin foolscap, but it does list his major actions and reason for discharge. The association set up to commemorate the Irish divisions from the south (who were ignored for years by both the Irish and British armies) were kind enough to give me much more information about his time.
He was a private in the Royal Dublin fusiliers, 1st battalion, known later in the war as the 'dubsters'.
Its only one small story among millions but it deserves telling.