Soldier Record

Grandad was in the trenches in France. He was wounded by schrapnel, receiving a head injury. He recalled being left, but each time he regained consiousness, he crawled. He woke up in a field hospital, having been found by the red cross. He was eventually sent to a Hospital in Lamlash, on the Isle of Aran. He was there for the next thirteen months. He was discharged from the Regiment because of the extent of his injury. Grandad talked little about his time in France, but one day he and I were watching an American war film. Seeing the soldiers being handed out chocolate, I said to Grandad, " look at all the chocolate you had in the war" He replied, " Chocolate, I didn't have a bed for three months. We all lived and slept in our clothes, and our coat was all we had to keep us warm at night. Those trenches were hell on earth. We huddled together for comfort, and listened to grown men crying for their mothers. My grandad suffered the affects of his head injury for the remainder of his life, but he still worked until he was sixty five. I am proud of my Grandad and all of the soldiers who endured those horrendous times of war.