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Pte. Cyril Frederick Barton
British Army Middlesex Regiment
A Nightingale Sung.... My grandfather 'Grandpop Barton' was a 'story teller', always ready with massive 'fishermans tales' about his war exploits, often by inferring involvement rather than any actual proof or evidence of heroism or derring-do. Strange then, he never mentioned his brother, Cyril, who went off to war with the Middlesex Regiment to France and never came back. Maybe it was the sheer loss of his beloved brother that led to his fantasy tales, suffice to say that my step-grandmother adored Pop and apparently genuinely believed his tall stories. She had one possession he had kept to remember his brother, a Middlesex Regiment badge.
Recently a photograph of Cyril came to light with uncanny family resemblances, my grand pop featured as a boy scout proudly alongside his soldier brother. A common surname, with little information, left us no wiser as to Cyrils final fall. Then, a result! Grandpop had one genuinely unusual thing about him, his middle name of Nightingale, led me through census records and war grave records to a small military cemetery in Couin France to find his brother, my great uncle, lying there. Rest well Great Uncle, maybe a nightingale flies above you as you sleep. Your tomorrow for our today.
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