234442 Pte. Charles McVea Buckner British Army 98th Field Ambulance Royal Army Medical Corps from:Huntington, West Virginia, USA McVea Buckner, an American eye-ear-nose and throat specialist, felt it his duty to volunteer to serve with the British Army in World War I. My grandmother, his young bride, traveled with him to Washington, DC, to send him off to war.
My grandmother never spoke of his war-time experiences except to say that my grandfather was horrified beyond measure at the immense suffering and extreme loss of young lives. My grandmother had a lovely voice and, as child, I would listen to her singing war-time songs that she must have sung to calm her own nerves, worrying whether her husband would return home. Charles McVea died in 1936, aged 49.
When my grandmother passed away, I found amongst her possessions a lovely Christmas greetings from the 98th (G.P.) Field Ambulance, dated 1917, Lt. Col. J.R.C. Greenlees, D.S.O. Commanding. The card is decorated by both motorized and horse-drawn ambulances, with a long poem ending:
"So here's a Happy Christmas, and a peaceful year to follow.
And a rollicking re-union, when the long, long trail shall end."
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