Sunday, June 12, 2011

Remembering my Great Grandfather 11.11.11

Remembrance Day W.T. Pickering 11.11.11 (mp3)




My Great Grandfather
W. T. Pickering, G/3371, 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers
Died 1916 at the Somme, commemorated on the Thipeval Memorial, France
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Remembrance day ..
A field of bright red poppies dance
As I walk hand in hand with my children
Through the battle fields of the Somme.
In my pocket, I have a bunch of wheat
A token memory from where he fell
At peace, to have walked where he walked.

As the poppies begin to fade....
I hear the thunder of guns, shrieking shells
I see a vast sea of dismembered bodies
A No-Man’s Land of mud and wire
A military display of golden fireworks
Casting light on this horrific hell on earth.

For underneath the poppies lie, the remains
Of so many men, who died, blown to pieces;
Where a river of blood will forever bleed
Passed on from generation to generation
The great loss of war, which nobody wins
As I remember William Thomas Pickering
So far away from home....


2 comments:

  1. Maire, it's wonderful to have this history and to be able to post it here..
    Gone but not forgotten. XX

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  2. Yes Barbara, nice to put the photo of him in uniform and then the photo of his darling Alice with my grandmother behind her, the eldest girl, 5 girls in all. Alice married again, had a baby boy and died shortly afterwards. I recently found the name of her second husband and the son. That husband left with his son and the girls were left orphans in 1922. Shocking times and a history of sadness that has bled throughout my grandmother's life and my mothers life too. I am glad to have walked where he walked and to have broken the cycle of sadness.

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