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
Rflmn. Joseph Brown
British Army 3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade
from:Shaw, Oldham, Lancashire
(d.12th Oct 1915)
Joseph Brown is my great grandfather and he was killed in October 1915 as a result of his injuries in Belgium. He is buried in the CWG Cemetry in Poperinghe and in May 2014 I visited Flanders and his grave. This was a very moving experience and one that I will not forget.
I was brought up knowing the story of Joseph from his daughter Emma, my grandmother, as she always wished that she could have visited his grave but never got the chance. Joseph was 39 when he died and was a father of six children.
My grandmother had two letters in her possession which I now have and these are very touching and beautifully written letters from a private James A King of the Royal Army Medical Corps to the widow of Joseph and in these letters he explains that her husband suffered six bullet wounds to the abdomen and by the time he arrived at the field hospital he had died. These letters meant so much to the family and almost 100 years later they mean just as much to me and my family.
Before my trip to Belgium I did more research and very sadly found a picture of Joseph in the local newspaper and this is the first I had seen his picture. But I also found out that his two younger brothers, Harry and Fred, were also killed in 1917 and 1918 respectively. I visited the grave of Harry in Ypres and this is so sad as he is buried just a few miles from Joseph. The three brothers are commemorated on the war memorial in their home town.
