Site Home
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Great War Home
Search
Add Stories & Photos
Library
Help & FAQs
Features
Allied Army
Day by Day
RFC & RAF
Prisoners of War
War at Sea
Training for War
The Battles
Those Who Served
Hospitals
Civilian Service
Women at War
The War Effort
Central Powers Army
Central Powers Navy
Imperial Air Service
Library
World War Two
Submissions
Add Stories & Photos
Time Capsule
Information
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Our Facebook Page
Volunteering
News
Events
Contact us
Great War Books
About
213141Pte. Cyril Frederick Barton
British Army Middlesex Regiment
Cyril Barton on right, with brothers Fred (left) and Reg (middle)
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.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.