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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
L/Cpl. Louis Corbin
British Army 3rd Btn. Grenadier Guards
from:Battersea, London
(d.27th Nov 1917)
My Grandfather, Louis Corbin, died in WW1 on 27 November 1917. He was in the Grendier Guards, 3 Btn. Quite a sad story really. My grandmother, Maggie Corbin, was born in a remote location in the north west corner of Ireland in County Donegal. She had been married and had a child who had died probably in childbirth and in the 1911 Census she was living in Donegal in her parent's house because her husband had already died. That was a pretty poor situation for a woman in those days in that area where there was virtually no employment for men, never mind woman, she was also 37 years of age and her prospects would not have been good, but she was strong woman like the rest of her family.
Anyway, she made her way to London and met Louis Corbin and they married in 1915. Louis Corbin was from Nynehead near Wellington in Somerset. They lived in Battersea and he was based in Wellington Barracks according to their marriage certificate. Louis Corbin went off to war and sent postcards home etc and came back on leave, my grandmother became pregnant and my mother, Eileen Corbin, was born on 6 Dec 1917. Louis Corbin at this time was in France and had taken part in the battle of Cambria and according to the records died on 27 Nov 1917 so he never saw his child and my mother never met him. I don't think my grandmother became aware of his death immediately and she would have no family members in London so must have been quite a shock. According to my mother all my grandmother knew was that the whole battalion had been wiped out and all bulldozed into a mass grave.
It such a shame that these two people could not have lived happily ever after but that's the reality of war. Louis Corbin would have been looking forward to seeing his child in a few weeks but it was not too be. My grandmother moved back to Ireland with her child and raised her next door to her own parents in Donegal in a beautiful spot. My grandmother lived in Donegal from about 1918 until her death in 1957 and never married again.
The sad thing is my grandmother never knew where my grandfather's grave was, and neither did my mother. All her life my mother never knew where he was buried, she had an idea that he was from a region around South Wales in a place called Port Talbot and travelled there a few times to see if she could find out anything about him but could never find anything. She never even knew where he was buried. There was no Google then. My sister then, in the eighties, tracked him down to Somerset and travelled there. But could find no relatives or where his grave was. My mother died in 1984 and never found out anything about her father, although she searched all her life. You have to remember the area my mother was brought up in in Donegal was very remote, no electricity till the seventies, no running water till the seventies, no phones in houses till late seventies, so when my grandmother was living in the 20's to 40's it was almost impossible to communicate in any meaningful way.
I was named after my grandfather and I wish I knew more about him but of course now we have the Internet and I finally found his grave. Well, I did not, a friend of mine saw my grandfather's medals and typed the info into the Internet and The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Website came up and revealed his resting place in the Louvrral Memorial in Northern France. I visited his grave in 2005 and it was sad to think that the poor man had lain alone here for so many years before some one came to visit him, not for the want of caring but because we never knew where he was and I am happy I know where he is now. I have inscribed his name on my mother's gravestone in Donegal so at last they are united in a strange way. I feel sorry for these people imaging what they went through and not knowing whether they would be alive the next day.
I would like to know more about my grandfather and where he was before the war and where his battalion was based. If anyone could help I would be most grateful. He will be dead 100 years in 2017. It would be great if I could find some of his descendants to let them know he is not forgotten.
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