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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Pte. Herbert William Frederick "Bert" Cleet
British Army Infantry
from:Newcastle on Tyne (or South Shields)
Bert was my maternal grandfather, who died in his eighties in '63 when I was eight, so I can remember him well. And as my Mum still lives in Edinburgh she can maybe fill in some more information. His unit was at one of the great battles, probably Paschendale, where he was gassed and eventually many decades later died of lung problems. One of my last memories is of him at home in bed, still cheerful, with oxygen by the bed - home was 2 Dene Crescent,near Jesmond Dene, Newcastle-on-Tyne(till '73). I don't remember him ever answering 'What did you do in the war, grandpa?' And no-one prompted me at such a young age to ask that question. However, I often remember them visiting us and he in a chair and I or my younger brother talking with him or playing with toy bricks nearby. My grandma was a strong-minded redhead and his second wife - I think he was widowed - my Mum has no surviving step brothers etc and doesn't really keep much contact with cousins or younger - mostly as I grew up in Scotland about eight hours by road away (cousin Cyril may have been her side rather than his as memories blur or get embroidered). Grandpa was wounded previously, to being invalided out. May have been Durham unit though unsure. In WW2, think he may have been part of Home Guard, as middle aged by then, and as a butcher running his own shop, that might have been a reserved occupation. Mum, their only child was evacuated to near Windermere.
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