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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Pte. Joseph Metcalfe
British Army 5th Btn. West Yorks
from:York
(d.3rd May 1917)
My grandfather, Joseph, worked in a foundry in York and he was a keen fisherman. He was married to Margaret and had five children. The middle one was Violet while the other four were boys, in descending order of age, William, Joseph, Frederick and, my father, Edward who was born on the 8th December, 1913.
It is reputed that when Joseph found that his city was being bombed by Zepperlins he volunteered for the West Yorks. He trained in the UK but I do not know where, except that Grandma is reckoned to have taken his children to wave goodbye to him as his train passed through York. It might, therefore, have been Colsterdale where he undertook initial training but there is also rumour that he completed training on Salisbury Plain.
I don't know when or where he landed in France as the War Office tell me that records pertaining to him were lost due to bomb damage in WWII. He died on the disastrous advance from Arras on 3rd May 1917. He was one of the many 'missing believed lost' and a report, unsubstantiated, states that during the advance he took a direct hit from a shell to the head. His daughter Violet told of the many visits her mother made to the docks when she heard that repatriated troops were being landed at the docks in Hull.
She later remarried and had another family and sadly some of Joseph's personal things 'went missing'. The saddest loss of all is the bronze 'Widow's Penny' which 'disappeared' in York following the divorce of his second son who was the 'keeper' of it. My father passed on to me Joseph's medals and watch, while my cousin, Frederick's eldest gave me a late framed photo of Joseph taken before the war and we have one of him in uniform.
wrote an article in the York Press requesting readers to search to see if they acquired his bronze Widow's Penny but to no avail. I would dearly like to have it back in the family's possession. I have visited the Arras memorial where he is listed among the dead.
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