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Thread: So with our PL/CL double firmly on schedule

  1. #31
    Quote Originally Posted by Peter View Post
    I don't really know anything other than the fact that he got shot, and my mum only found that out fairly recently through his military records. Apparently he never said a word about the war. Nor did my grandad. My family's military history is not terribly impressive

    I do know my grandad came back from the war despising the British empire. He spent a lot of time stationed in Trinidad and he couldn't believe the poverty he saw. Began to dawn on him that everything you were told about the glorious empire was bull****.

    Funny the lessons people seem to take from their time at war. Both him and your Indian friend ended up hating the British
    Beat me to it. Is very interesting. Both realised it was all a mirage.

    {Btw, the average Tommy from the Western Front came home despising all Europeans except the Krauts who they had a grudging respect for.}

    You don't know what regiment he/they were in, do you?

  2. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by Peter View Post
    My great, great, great grandfather was from Limerick. He fought in the Crimean War and was part of the Charge of the Light Brigade. And survived

    He was court martialled for striking an officer on 01st January. Rumour is he was fond of a drink.

    He moved to England and ended up creating four generations of Arsenal fans
    One of my Grandad’s brothers fought in WW1. The Kaiser fled to Holland, armistice day came and went and the brother was shot & killed in some type of skirmish on the way back home. Only a teenager.
    How’s your luck

  3. #33
    Quote Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda View Post
    Ireland being neutral in the war meant I had no relatives who fought in the wars. Though it was rumoured that my paternal grandfather volunteered for the army - no one says on which side though
    As an integral part of the UK, they weren't neutral in WW1, LA, even if we didn't bring in conscription there in the hope of avoiding a civil war - lol, that worked well.

    But the regular army regiments - eg the Connaught Rangers who fielded 6 btns and lost 2.5k officers and men - did fight, and kept getting a few additional volunteers to make up some of the lost.

    I've been to the grave of the Irish Nationalist leader and MP, Redmond, in Flanders.

    In Goodbye to all That, Graves said that when his Royal Welch took over a trench and the Hun opposite shouted across "Vot regiment, Tommy", one of them would shout back "the Oirish Guards" inferring said Paddy Guards were the elite of the home countries units.

  4. #34
    Quote Originally Posted by 7sisters View Post
    One of my Grandad’s brothers fought in WW1. The Kaiser fled to Holland, armistice day came and went and the brother was shot & killed in some type of skirmish on the way back home. Only a teenager.
    How’s your luck
    Jeez, that's horrific.

    Puts Wilfred Owen's mum getting the king's telegram as the armistice bells sounded into perspective.

  5. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult View Post
    Beat me to it. Is very interesting. Both realised it was all a mirage.

    {Btw, the average Tommy from the Western Front came home despising all Europeans except the Krauts who they had a grudging respect for.}

    You don't know what regiment he/they were in, do you?
    I don't know, but my mum will know. I'll ask her

    I don't think my grandad needed too much of a shove re the Empire. He was a rampant left winger, trade unionist and anti monarchist and I think a fair bit of that pre-dated the war. But he never forgot, or forgave, what he saw in Trinidad. I was there last year and got to visit the area where the base was. We (the British) didn't cover ourselves in glory there after the war

  6. #36
    Quote Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult View Post
    As an integral part of the UK, they weren't neutral in WW1, LA, even if we didn't bring in conscription there in the hope of avoiding a civil war - lol, that worked well.

    But the regular army regiments - eg the Connaught Rangers who fielded 6 btns and lost 2.5k officers and men - did fight, and kept getting a few additional volunteers to make up some of the lost.

    I've been to the grave of the Irish Nationalist leader and MP, Redmond, in Flanders.

    In Goodbye to all That, Graves said that when his Royal Welch took over a trench and the Hun opposite shouted across "Vot regiment, Tommy", one of them would shout back "the Oirish Guards" inferring said Paddy Guards were the elite of the home countries units.
    Says a lot about WW1 that we didn't introduce conscription until 1916.

    Ireland were neutral in the second lot, although they did lend the Navy a hand on several occasions, on the quiet

  7. #37
    Quote Originally Posted by Peter View Post
    Says a lot about WW1 that we didn't introduce conscription until 1916.

    Ireland were neutral in the second lot, although they did lend the Navy a hand on several occasions, on the quiet
    Yes - should have stated WWII (though tbf Ireland wasn't independent in WWI so didn't have a say)
    Last edited by Luis Anaconda; 02-21-2024 at 02:22 PM.

  8. #38
    Quote Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda View Post
    Yes - should have stated WWII (though tbf Ireland was independent in WWI so didn't have a say)
    Well, they had their say at the Post Office in 1916

    Following 7 or 8 years weren't great. I recently went on the tour of Kilmainham jail, horribly hungover. Plenty of English people there and it was a little shocking to see how little so many of them knew about the history.

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