The Society welcomed back Andrew Hamilton on Tuesday 27th October to give a talk on his book, which he wrote with Alan Reed, "Stolen Lives, Individual Tragedies of the Great War". We were all enthralled by his tales of the Christmas Truce in 1914, but this time he told the amazing stories of the lives and deaths of 48 men, 1 woman and a dog, in the Great War. His subjects were chosen without regard to class, creed or even age, as some of the volunteers who enlisted were young boys of only 15 or 16 years, who lied about their age in order to fight, 'For King and Country'.
They came from all walks of life, from royalty to the humblest of men. There were many well known sportsmen, authors, poets and musicians. They were all comrades, but unfortunately they were poorly trained and inexperienced and the Germans were better prepared. Their bravery was reflected in the fact that there were many VCs among the soldiers, but perhaps the saddest story was that of a young boy who was shot for cowardice!
Women also played their part. A V.A.D. nurse was billeted in a tent and was killed by a stray shell from the Germans as she was bravely doing her duty. There is a memorial to all the women who died in service in York Cathedral. It was possibly the women who were left behind who felt the worst effects of war, wondering about the plight of their loved ones, and grieving for them when they were killed, especially the woman who lost five sons! How do you cope with that?
Andrew illustrated his talk with photographs which showed the horror of the dugouts, often covered in snow and deep in mud. The enormous loss of life became apparent when you saw the rows and rows of headstones in the cemeteries in France and Belgium, which were designed to resemble country gardens. The inscriptions state that "Their names will live on for ever more" even though they were sacrificed to the fallacy that " war can end war". The talk certainly gave us food for thought!
Paul Share, the Chairman, sadly announced that Harry Siddall, who used to live in the village, had died in Wales, aged 91, and Chris Upton, one of our regular speakers, had also died.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday, 24th November, at 7.30 p.m. in the Church Hall. The speaker will be Max Keen, who will entertain us with history on The English Civil War in Bewdley, Kidderminster and Worcester. There will be no meeting in December, but there will be a meeting of the Court Rolls group on Wednesday, 13th January and Wednesday 10th February at 2.30 p.m. in the Church Hall. Everyone is welcome.
Pat Evans