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Pte. Job Wilson
British Army 2nd Battalion Ox & Bucks Light Infantry
from:Great Missenden
(d.8th October 1918)
Job Wilson joined the Army in summer 1915, under intense pressure from society for all fit men to enlist. Job was 32 years old and had a wife, Rose and two children, Rosa (4) and George (2). He went to Oxford to join up, being given the number 18561 in the 2nd Battalion of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry.
Remarkably, Job Wilson survived for three years of horrific combat, when most of the men around him were being killed or wounded. He experienced many episodes of intense trench warfare including the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. By the following year he had become officer's batman (a personal servant) and is credited with saving Second Lieutenant P H R Whitehead, 'his' officers life when he was seriously wounded on 28th of May 1917. He then became batman to Captain G Field MC, who became Major Field in charge of the Regiment. Job would have had very little leave, but he did return to Great Missenden to see his family for a few days leave in early October 1918 and on his way back to the front line he wrote immediately to his wife Rose to try to cheer her up. "I am not surprised at you feeling a bit down, but chin up, better days in store, tell Rosa and George to cheer up, dad is alright, best and fondest love from your loving husband xxxxxx". By the time she read it, he had been blown up by a German bomb and died of his wounds very soon after. The war was all over only a month later, on 11 November 1918.
Sending the sad news of his death, Major Field wrote to his widow Rose "I miss him very very much indeed. As you probably know he had been my servant for the last 3 months and a more cheerful, hard-working, excellent fellow would be very difficult to find." Rose remained living at Office Cottage (now known as Peppercorn Cottage) in Great Missenden for 40 years and worked hard to provide for Rosa and George both eventually went to Grammar School.
Job was buried in a war cemetery in France. No-one from the family has ever visited Job's grave in Flesquieres Hill British Cemetery, but this is planned for the centenary of his death. And on Sunday 8th October 2017 the "ghost" of Job Wilson will be seen again in WW1 uniform in the village of Great Missenden, around the church and High Street war memorials, the station, and his cottage, re-enacted by his great-grandson, Mark Smith.
