Additions will be checked before being published on the website and where possible will be forwarded to the person who submitted the original entries. Your contact details will not be forwarded, but they can send a reply via this messaging system.
please scroll down to send a message
Robert Sudbury Wilson
British Army 5th Btn. Cheshire Regiment
from:Ashton on Mersey, Sale, Cheshire
My grandfather, Bobby Wilson fought at The Somme, he was a stretcher bearer and band member - I still have his bugle. He told of the tedium of the trenches, but when he took a break he would hang his helmet on a foot that conveniently protruded from the wall of their trench. Nice.
One day their trench was shelled and a he was, luckily, standing in a 'passing place' (a recess in the trench) when one landed right in their trench. His sargeant, much bigger than he with a huge handlebar moustache, squeezed in with him to avoid the blast. So there they are, face to face, in a space probably half the size of a phonebox waiting for the smoke to clear. When he looked up, his sarge had clearly only just made it - because half his moustache had been blown off. As he sobbed with laughter his superior stomped off to attend to his pride and joy. We never found out whether he or his moustache ever recovered.
The most chilling story was of the day he 'went over the top'. He said that they only got a little way in the smoke and chaos and when the smoke cleared, he suddenly realised he was the only one alive. God only knows how any of them came back.
