WW1 Interviews
Interviewing Dave Burns:
Dave's paternal grandfather and his great uncle Bob were alive during World War 1.
Dave's Uncle was part of the Durham light infantry and survived throughout the war; the Durham light infantry fought in a range of different places. Sadly, Bob died to a rusty nail in the 1950s while working as a builder.
Dave's grandfather was twenty-nine at the start of the war, and he volunteered into the war. He started the war in the royal naval air service tethered behind a balloon being pulled behind a destroyer; his job was to look out for enemy submarines close to the allied ships. He was then transferred to the Royal Air Force and spent a varying amount of time with them. Towards the end of the war, he was transferred into the Royal labour corps, where he carried out tasks such as digging and unloading supply trains. They did a lot of post-war work, for example, burying deceased people and sorting out inventory.
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Interviewing Jerry Cain:
Jerry had two grandfathers alive during WW1; one was too old to fight in the war - he was born in 1868, so he was nearly 40 when the war broke out.
His other grandfather was in the Lancashire Fusiliers Brigade - They were based in Berry, where Jerry's family originated.
During the wars, there was a lot of work for Jerry's father's textiles industry, khaki was in high demand, and so business boomed. However, after the war, there was a great depression due to the shortage of materials, which caused the suffering of businesses in Lancashire.
Jerry also speaks about how Gandhi motivated India to produce cotton rather than importing it; this added to the strain on the business as the demand decreased. Following WorldWar2 the cotton industry in Lancashire decreased rapidly around the 1960s. The depression of the war was the beginning of the end for the business as Britain lost lots of its economic power while focusing on fighting Germany.
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Photos below showing Jerry's grandfather's fusiliers sword from the first world war.
Interviewing Celia Hall:
One of Celia's grandfathers was too old for the war; he died in 1946.
Her other grandfather was born in Romania and adopted by a Christian missionary; he came to England as a child and was born around 1882.
In his thirties, he may have been too old to fight in the war, or it could have been because of his varied background that he was not allowed to fight. Celia's grandfather nationalised much later, and so he didn't fight during the war.
He was not inherently English and so was passed to the side.
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This page was compiled by myself, Luke Sutton, which has enabled me to complete my silver D of E award, and I would like to thank everyone who agreed to be interviewed.
Many thanks.