In Memory of My Great Grandad and the Se7en Who Died

(he was a stretcher bearer soldier for the york and lancaster regiment 8th bn and this is his story).he and seven other stretcher bearers on the 1st of july 1916 were ordered to leave the forward trenches on a dangerous mission into no mans land to search and rescue wounded men and officers and bring them back for urgent medical attention.during heavy artillery bombardment seven of the eight stretcher bearers were blown up and killed while searching in no mans land but by some miracle leaving one standing my great grandad who then continued on his own(unable to carry a stretcher)began to search for the wounded while under constant heavy machine gun and rifle fire he was hit and seriously wounded in the leg but still some how managed to continue allday long out in the open with no cover to find and bring back the wounded to the forward trenches one person at a time and in doing this he was able to save many lives.he showed extreme bravery extreme coolness and extreme courage.for this he was awarded the(d.c.m) for cospicuous gallantry.

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