Soldier Record

My Grandfather was wounded 1st/2nd Feb 1916 in the Somme area in France. Some 6 weeks before Tin hats became standard issue in March 1916.

He spent six months in Hospital in Hunstanton finally returning home with a bullet or piece of shrapnel still embedded in his head. He was pensionsed off.This fragment remained until his death in 1938 causing regular epileptic fits.

He never worked again but became a house husband whilst grandma and the children went out to work.

Being an older man, 37 at the time of injury, he spent a lot of time campaigning and writing letters on behalf of much younger disabled soldiers in order to get pensions for them.

The story is that he was warned on a number of occasions by the Army Pensions Board that his pension would be reduced if he continued his with these activities.

Being the kind of man that he was he continued and his pension was finally reduced.

My mother who was the youngest of 7, born 1920, remembered blazing rows, from time to time, between her parents about his reputed greater regard for his soldier comrades than his family.

Life could not have been easy on half a pension and a woman's wage.

Many pension records were destroyed in the early 40's as a result of enemy bombing. Grandad's pension record does not seem to be available.

It would be very interesting to discover just how many old soldiers had their pensions reduced for similar reasons. If in fact the records hold this specific information.