The Front Line Letters of 'Tommy’ Wyer ― Part Two Tommy's final letter in Part One left us with a sense of reassurance. He had come through the fighting of late September and early October, had been struck but not seriously, and had been able to tell his parents that he was lucky. Set against …
The Front Line Letters of 'Tommy' Wyer ― Part One There is an assortment of evidence that enables us to tell the story of a soldier of the Great War. There is the military record: a name, a number, a regiment and a date of death. There are medal rolls, casualty lists and official forms. …
A Horseman of Dunsby Fen Names carved upon the war memorials of south Lincolnshire are of men whose lives were cut short before they had the opportunity to discover what the future might hold. Thomas Wand was one such man. Thomas was born in the south Lincolnshire village of Dunsby. By the time he was …
Family Connections Behind 'The Lost Fenland Generation' FAMILY HISTORIANS QUICKLY become accustomed to following people through the fragments they have left behind. A baptism places a child in a particular village and identifies the parents; a census records a household on one particular night; a marriage joins two names together; a burial marks the end …
The Harvest of War WHILE ROBERT AND EDMUND continued their training in England, their younger brother William was already on his way to war. In the early hours of 30 July, 1915 he and the 9th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment reached Boulogne with 26 officers and 872 other ranks. From there began a succession of trains, …
The Harvest for War THE PHRASE 'over by Christmas' has echoed through history as a symbol of misplaced optimism. Yet, in 1914, as Europe slid inexorably toward a full-scale Continental war, there were men in positions of command who knew better. Britain's newly appointed Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener was one of them. …
The Last Harvest ON A CRISP November morning in 2021, three elderly men gathered beside a newly erected street sign in the Lincolnshire village of Hacconby. They stood proudly, smiling for the photographer as the street sign denoting Wyer Close was formally unveiled ahead of Remembrance Sunday. To many people passing by today, it is …
Newly Discovered Photographs of Walter Sandall THE PAST RARELY yields its secrets in a single revelation. Instead, history tends to disclose itself one tantalising piece at a time. When I published Walter Sandall's story, I believed I had gathered together everything that remained of his military service. His Army records, family memories and official documents …
The Horseman who Rode East FOR MOST YOUNG men of the Lincolnshire fenlands in the early 1900s, life seemed destined never to carry them far from the place where they began. For Walter Sandall, that place was the quiet fenland village of Rippingale. Here, the rhythm of life was aligned to the seasons, the weather …
The Double Sacrifice JOHN WILLIAM SANDALL is, in many ways, representative of countless young men from rural Lincolnshire whose lives followed the steady rhythm of the seasons until the First World War shattered the familiar order of things. He was a cousin of mine, and this is his story. JOHN WAS BORN at Rippingale in …
