Don't Forget About Us
Ever since my dad gave me a set of WW1 medals when I was a teenager that he had found in a skip, I was hooked. I remember looking at those medals and feeling a sense of wonderment and pride that I was now the owner of these wonderful items that to me signified the owner must have done some heroic deed to earn them and wondering how they could ever have ended up amongst the debris of old building material. Surely, someone mistakenly discarded them, and the original owners would be frantically searching the house for them.
Unbeknownst to me, I had a British War and Victory medal from WW1, known as Pip and Squeak or Mutt and Jeff by the soldiers who were awarded them. The authorities issued over 6.5 million for the former and 5.7 million for the latter. But. they captivated me because I could see that each one featured the soldier's name, and a number neatly engraved on them. What I wanted to know more than anything was who this person was and what had they done to get these medals. However, being only 14 years old, I had no clue about the internet's future and was more interested in playing football and chasing girls. History would have to wait for a while.
Shot forward 48 years and to this day I still have those medals that my dad gave me and for which I am ever grateful as they set me off on a lifelong passion for history and of WW1 and WW2. But for me it has never been about the Generals, battles or the machinery of war that I was interested in. It has been about the personal stories of the men and women who took part, many who gave their lives.
Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to accumulate several items relating to individual soldiers or airmen. These range from medals and memorial plaques, old photographs and letters, wristwatches and identity discs the latter which the family received from the battlefield after their loved ones' death. This website tries to tell the personal stories behind these items: who owned them, where they lived, went to school or worked, what family they had, where and how they died, and who or what remains to remember them.
The author Irvin Yalom once said, “Someday soon, perhaps in forty years, there will be no one alive who has ever known me. That’s when I will be truly dead, when I exist in no one’s memory”. I want them to keep their memories alive for as long as possible and this is my small tribute to some of those who fought and died. In writing it, I hope that I have prolonged their memory for a few more precious years.