Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => The Great War => Topic started by: jp1885 on 06 January 2014, 04:02:06 PM
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Hi,
Combining my current obsession with researching my family tree with the centenary of the Great War, I have started a new blog - http://myfamilyww1.blogspot.co.uk
I hope you like it!
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That's a pretty interesting approach to the topic. I'd be happy though if you'd activate Google Friend Connect on your Blog as I'd love to follow your progress on the matter.
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Thanks! I'll get that sorted ASAP :)
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They don't make it easy do they? I -think- I've added Google+ now.
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Very cool, please keep us posted. :)
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Very cool!
I have a picture of my great-grandfather; he was a medic in the Russian army in the Great War, pre-revolution.
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Thanks guys!
Hold on to that photo Grant - I don't have any of my grandad in uniform. I bet yours has a few tales to tell!
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Very interesting. I posted a postcard sent home by my grandfather from 1915 on my own blog. He didn't see active service as far as I am aware and unfortunately he passed away long before I thought of asking him questions.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b1x-IhwPtQQ/UtAXohLt9mI/AAAAAAAAFU4/fW2Tezw5s6s/s1600/DSC03012.JPG)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J5xGG6jWepA/UtAXoZwavzI/AAAAAAAAFU0/v4lQFKyELrw/s1600/DSC03013.JPG)
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That's a cracking photo!
I found a bit about Grove Park depot on the Great War forum - http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=154925
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Thanks for that.
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Great thread. That postcard is quite cool!
My great-grandfather, far right, seated:
(http://www.myalbum.ca/Photo-YKQFXCIL-D.jpg)
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Great thread. That postcard is quite cool!
My great-grandfather, far right, seated:
(http://www.myalbum.ca/Photo-YKQFXCIL-D.jpg)
Russian? Or Ukrainian as might be more likely considering this is Canada (especially given you're out west)?
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I'm historically Mennonite; we believe in non-resistance so no war. When we went to the Crimea, Catherine the Great gave us an exemption on military duty. Forestry (forstei) service was the option. In the Great War, some of us decided to be medics. It was very controversial. Even worse, when the revolution happened, the Russian Reds attacked the villages, and after 500 years of not fighting, the Mennonites formed self defence (selbstschutzen) units and fought back! Very interesting history.
My people settled in Southern Ontario in the 1920s, leaving the Soviet Union following Stalin's Harvest of Sorrow, which devastated the Ukraine, and killed over 6 million people. Many Mennonites did settle in Southern Manitoba though.
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Great laid-back hat action from your Great Grandfather there. I had one killed in action (GGF, not hat) and one died in 1919 from wounds. My late Grandfather served in the Intelligence Corps during WW2 and refused to speak about what he did (perhaps he was a stripper?) but he did write his memoirs, so I must find the most recent copy and read them some time.
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It is superb to see others searching for information on family members who were involved in the Great War.
In 2009 i was given my Grandfathers naval documents after my Dad passed away by my Aunt who thought i might like them but at the time i didnt realise i would stumble across a family secret that had been kept hidden for decades.
My Grandfather passed away when i was four and i cannot remember him but i was told he had served on a ship that had been sunk by torpedo and had managed to survive even though he couldnt swim at the time. Thats all i knew and when i asked for more details my Dad would quickly change the subject and i could never get anything further from him.
On looking at the small list of ships my Grandfather had served on and looking into the history of the vessels i came across HMS Glatton and the ship he was on that had been sunk by torpedo but not by the Germans as i had always imagined or been led to think...but by the Royal Navy!
He was just 18 at the time and the Great War was coming to an end and he had sailed on HMS Glatton from Hull down the coast to Dover. HMS Glatton was a refit and had perhaps been refitted in haste and the crew found her performance very, very poor and the vessel had limped to Dover hugging the coastline being unable to go out into the se . During the journey it is thought a slow fire broke out but remained undetected until a serious explosion in one of her gun magazines occurred at Dover.
Naval command in Dover it would appear were dumbstruck by the explosion and terrified that more explosions may occur and the order was quickly given to scuttle the ship in case a very heavily laden munitions ship nearby was caught in any further explosion/s. The whole of the port was also thought to be at risk if this was to happen and the main reason the order to scuttle HMS Glatton was given.
I was totally stunned when i read the offical history of the ship and the fate of some of her crew. I asked my Aunt if she knew any more of what had happened and she agreed to tell me what her father (my Grandfather) had told her. According to her most of the survivors after the event were told to keep quiet as it was considered very bad for morale and many were confined and kept in barracks until they could be put on other ships and sent well away fom the area.
The explosion had perhaps killed and injured up to a third of the crew but my Grandfather and others according to my Aunt had attempted to rescue some of the injured and crew who were trapped below decks but the chain of events made this next to impossible. He and others were still on the ship attempting rescues when the order was given to scuttle her and a series of torpedeos were fired at the already stricken ship with the intent of sinking her without any further explosion. My Grandfather and some other survivors were knocked into the water when one of the torpedeo's struck and he manged to hang onto floatsom until he was eventually plucked from the water a few hours later.
Reading the inquiry report which i found online no real mention was made of any of the survivors from the explosion attempting to rescue the injured and trapped when the order was given to scuttle the ship.
My Grandfather was confined to barracks after the event like a lot of the survivors and i can see that from his documents and then he was put on shipping that was sent to the Arctic Circle and Canada and did not return to the UK till 1919 and the Great war was over. By that time no one wanted to know. No real salvage attempts were made on HMS Glatton till the mid 1920's when she was considered a danger to shipping. The remains of the ship now lie under landfill that was used to extend Dover Harbour. Her bell was salvaged and some of the remains of the crew who had perished. My Aunt said my Grandfather never fully trusted anyone in authority for the rest of his life.
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I'm historically Mennonite; we believe in non-resistance so no war. When we went to the Crimea, Catherine the Great gave us an exemption on military duty. Forestry (forstei) service was the option. In the Great War, some of us decided to be medics. It was very controversial. Even worse, when the revolution happened, the Russian Reds attacked the villages, and after 500 years of not fighting, the Mennonites formed self defence (selbstschutzen) units and fought back! Very interesting history.
My people settled in Southern Ontario in the 1920s, leaving the Soviet Union following Stalin's Harvest of Sorrow, which devastated the Ukraine, and killed over 6 million people. Many Mennonites did settle in Southern Manitoba though.
Ah! I live in Toronto, but I'm originally from Manitoba, so there were plenty of Mennonites and Ukrainians around (and yes, plenty of Mennonites in Ontario too).
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That's a great photo Grant, and a very interesting slice of history!
My Aunt said my Grandfather never fully trusted anyone in authority for the rest of his life.
I don't blame him!
I've now added a page about my great uncle (grandad's brother) here - http://myfamilyww1.blogspot.co.uk/p/john-lee-price-aka-gwilliam.html
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My arrière grand-père died in 1920 from complication due to gas inhalation in the western front trenches (he serve in the French Infantry). He lived long enough to see the birth of his two daughters (my grandmother and her older sister).
I hope I come up with some plan to "celebrate" the Great War Centennial myself...
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I'd be interested to see what you come up with :)
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My grandmother was a little girl when she saw her first airplane, 1917. The family were riding into town in a wagon in Southern Indiana. They saw what had to have been a Jenny. They wondered if it was a German plane. The irony of course was that we were Germans...
My roommate in college had a Grandfather in the war, a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian army. Another friend's Grandfather was in the Russian army, but deserted in 1919to come to the US. Nowadays people have no contact to the war or the flu epidemic.
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My maternal great-grandfather was a Quaker and served as an ambulance driver and stretcher bearer on the Western Front, apparently, with a Canadian medical unit organized out of somewhere on the Prairies - I need to ask my grandmother again, I can't remember if it was out of Winnipeg or Regina. At least one of his brothers didn't make it home.
On my father's side, I'm the inheritor of a rather awesome family artifact - a great-great-uncle's last letter home from the Western Front, dated Feb 1918. He was killed April 1918, and as his name is listed on Menin Gate, he body was presumably never identified or recovered. He'd enlisted in the South African infantry in 1914 and arrived in France sometime around November 1914, so he was an old hand at the whole trench war thing when he was killed, quite likely. I've also got his Princess Mary's tin from Christmas 1914, which I really need to get decent photos of one of these days.
Entertainingly, given the later link in my family between South Africa and Canada, my great-great-uncle writes that while on leave in England, they played rugger (rugby) against some Canadian troops from the next camp, and he complains that they played very rough rugby, leaving his legs "black and blue from top to bottom" from kicking!
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My Great grandpa was a late comer to the conflict in Frances seeing as how he came in with the AEF, but he was still no stranger to conflict having graduated from west point and served as a Lt. in Perishing's Mexican expedition to get Pancho Villa. He actually was in the last US cavalry charge in North America. Got his Calvary saber and his west point one two.
Still can not find out what unit he served with over in Frances, a wear house fire it the 50s I believe destroyed a lot of old war records. but he did get gassed and got the bronze star for leading his unit in the Musse-Argon, they knocked out 3 Mg nests before he got domed. Knocked him out cold and left a bald spot on the top of his head, but luckily his helmet saved him.
He transferred to the Air crop and was well on his way to general in World war 2 when a routine flight turned into a tragedy.
Co-pilot of the plane he was on accidently cut the full feed to the left engine causing the plain to crash. Killing all on board.
On the up side they were able to do a recall on all of those plains and move the switch to above the co-pilots head instead of nest to his knee.
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Some smashing stories - thanks for sharing them! :)
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Some amazing stories here, thanks for sharing them everyone!
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My Aunt said my Grandfather never fully trusted anyone in authority for the rest of his life.
I don't blame him!
Nor do I! Thats a great yet tragic story.
My family, to my knowlege, didnt play much of a part in the Great War. I beleive my great great uncle (I think it was 2 great) was a pilot but we dont have much information on him. Just a braclet with his name on it from the period. I dont know what unit he flew with, i think it was the RFC but im not 100% sure. The only story my grandmother knows about was him 'crashing' his plane often, it seemed he prefered his time in the hospital with the nurses VS the front. Again, im not sure if this is correct or not.
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I guess it's not technically the Great War, but my great great grandfather got caught on the wrong side of the Russian revolution and spent quite some time in a bolshevik prison camp until they let him go and he was able to move to back Finland.
I just recently came into possession of a box he built:
(http://www.swob.kvy.fi/photo-archive/20140112/tiny/20140112-032.jpg)
More on the box in my blog:
http://www.smallcuts.net/blog/?id=1515
P.S. Might have gotten confused with all the greats in there. He was my grandmother's grandfather, born in Finland but moved to Russia in his teens.
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That's a real work of art!
I've put up a new page on my blog today, with a nautical flavour... http://myfamilyww1.blogspot.co.uk/p/arthur-easton-kennington.html