|
|
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Site Home
Help & FAQs
Features
Submissions
Information
Advertisements
World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Pte. Ernest Whitehead
British Army 1/8th Btn Sherwood Foresters
from:Hawton
My father, Ernest Whitehead, enlisted in October 1914 and lost an arm whilst serving in France in 1916. He subsequently became a postman, the only disabled postman I have ever come across. He served as a postman for 29 years.
My father, who was a farm waggoner, enlisted on 22nd October 1914 and served with the 1/8th Sherwood Foresters in France from 6th June 1915 to 25th April 1916. He returned to the UK after losing his right arm just below the elbow. He would never talk about that time and I don't even know the circumstances in which he was wounded. It looks likely that he lost his arm on the 15th or 16th April in the trenches east of Berthonual farm near Mt St Eloy.
It is interesting that, until I unearthed it, even my mother didn't know that it was the second time he had been wounded (Aug 1915). After a period in Roehampton Hospital and discharge he became a Postman in October 1919, a job he held down until he was retired at 60 in 1949.
An amusing aside - My father had two artificial arms complete with hand. One for everyday use and one for “bestâ€. When my father died he was buried wearing his “best†artificial arm and hand. My mother could not decide what to do with the other arm and hand. The NHS did not want them back and she could not face putting them in the dustbin. So for whatever reason decided to bury them in her garden. We chuckled but Mum couldn’t understand what we found so funny. We could picture the scene years later when some poor person digging in the garden found a hand and arm emerging. What a shock.
Apart from discharge papers etc. I have nothing from my father's time in WW1.
The little Dad said: He said once with a chuckle about the Belgians running along the trench and shouting " La Boche La Boche". He said that he had been to Armentiers when the song "Mademoiselle from Armentiers Parlez Vous" was on the wireless. My sister says that our father was in hospital with gassed Canadians. He mentioned this once while watching All Quiet on the Western Front. My sister also says that when he lost his right arm a shell burst in the trench and killed all the men by him including someone he enlisted with. For other family connections in WW1 see www.whiteheadm.co.uk
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
The Wartime Memories Project Website
is archived for preservation by the British Library
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.
