Photography

[PaddockLad 17262]

Aye, I looked it up.

 

Of all the places to get shot, you wouldn't want it to be there.

Was your Grandfather still around when you were a kid?

 

Yeah he died in 1979 aged 81. I remember him pretty clearly, but most of what I know about him comes from my old man. He seems to have talked a fair bit about the Western Front.He was in a siege battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery loading shells on to 9" Howitzers that sat on rails to make the huge recoil easier to control.Apprarently he like thousands of others lied to join up at 16 or 17. Him and his mate walked the 15 miles from their village in Berwickshire to the recruiting centre at Galashiels. He got to the front and the officer took one look at his young features and lead him back behind lines where he waited on tables at the officers mess at the battery HQ for 6 months until he was 18. He was good at this as he was brought up on large country estates as the son of a gamekeeper and so knew how to address the gentry correctly.

 

He was behind the front line when he got injured at a chateau the officers used when they were withdrawn for a few days "r & r". There was supposedly a "gentlemans agreement" between the hun artillery and ours that this gaff wouldnt get targeted if we didnt aim at their place but they always sent one or two shells a week close by just to keep our lot on thier toes, it was one of these that got him. He had a long period of recuperation when he got back in various hospitals one of which was called Bangour in West Lothain. He and my old man were sat in a bar in Edinburgh sometime in the 70s where he got into conversation with an old woman sat at the bar. Turns out in her younger day she was a lady of extremely easy virtue ( ) and she and other women in the same trade were "encouraged" to spend time with the recuperating soldiers..she actually asked him "were you in Bangour after the war?" so Grandad must have made a distinct impression on her

 

After all that, he was apparently scared of absoloutely nothing, theres stories of him killing rats with his bare hands, and he was exceedingly sceptical about the church after he returned, barely setting foot in one after his return which was unusual. I dont suppose he was much different to thousands of other lads who returned (as did his two brothers, one from Ireland where he was serving with the KOSB during the 1918 Easter rising in Dublin) but sat here 100 years on its pretty plain he personally and his generation in general were truly remarkable men.

 

He's here with my nan, old man and auntie in the mid thirties:

 

[Monkeys Fist 42449]

Some close parallels with my Great Grandfather there.

He was also in the RGA , attached to 230th Siege Battery in France as a gunner, also on the 9" Howitzers.

Before that he was on Inchkeith Island Battery in the Firth of Forth.

Fortunately, he wasn't injured, but it left him deaf as a post for the rest of his life.

He died in 1977 aged 88, having worked as a printer at the Chronicle for his remaining working life.

He mustn't have spoken about it since my mother and aunts and uncles were very surprised to hear he'd served.

This is him, he was always immaculately dressed, dapper old sod

[PaddockLad 17262]

Clearly an Edwardian gentleman of some standing..thats a great pic

 

I think grandad was attached to the 118th siege battery RGA, when I was looking at all this I'd half convinced myself that he must've been with one of the Scottish based batteries but its pretty certain he wasnt as (I think) the likes of the Inchkeith battery exisited before the war started and the 118th was raised speciffically for the Flanders punch up.

 

Theres a book called "Intermittent Gunfire" which is the diary of a RGA officer from around that time, I got it for my old man but it seems to have disappeared from google...there appears to be a good few more on amazon though

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=node%3D271431&field-keywords=siege+battery&rh=n%3A271431%2Ck%3Asiege+battery

Edited June 9, 2015 by PaddockLad

[Monkeys Fist 42449]

His family nickname was apparently Butterfly Joe due to him always wearing butterfly collars.

I freaked my daughter out a while back as they'd been learning about the Victorian era at school.

Showed her this pic and told her I'd known a Victorian ( he was born 1889, 12 when Owld Vicky died), she was blown away.

[Howmanheyman 33221]

My Dad and late Granda were also in the Artillery, (RHA), although my Granda never served abroad and was medically discharged during WW2. His unit were sent to North Africa and took heavy losses so it's good job he was bad when he was otherwise you might never have experienced my superb patter and rapier-like wit on here. He worked at NEI Parsons on old Shields Road and retired in 1980. He passed away in the nineties. Like both your Grandparents he was deaf as a post and was always immaculately dressed and would get suited up, cufflinks etc just to go for a couple of hours in the Prince of Wales on Shields Road proper.

[ohhh_yeah 2966]

 

From 69'-72', Nick Hedges snapped these in cities in England & Scotland of families and their living conditions.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2016/feb/06/gimme-shelter-hard-lives-in-british-cities-1969-72

[Alex 35083]

Some great shots there. Those flats on Westgate Road are still there. They'll have been brand new back then I suppose.