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