Nobody's grand-dad at all

[mizkit]

Yesterday desperance wrote of a family bible found in the loft of his house. The bible contained a letter, dated 1911, about a young man called Harry Hoad who had just left school and was being recommended for employment by his headmaster.

A bit of research turned up young Harry's fate, which--as he was born in Britain in 1897--is precisely what you might

Comments

[debela]

God, that's heartbreaking. Poor kid. And if that's all the parents had of him...

I am curious about the regimental pins, if those aren't his regiments.

The poem is lovely, and I mean it no disrespect when I say I hop Harry managed to settle down in 1916 and have a job and grandchildren underfoot.

[mizkit]

Well, I think it's pretty likely it's that Harry who died in the trenches, but if he was lucky he might've had a child before he went off to die. I very much doubt he ever saw any grandchildren, and maybe not even any children. Snif.

[carandol]

Course if he did marry, children or not, there's the entirely untold story of his widow, waiting for his return. They can't have been married more than a year and a half, and I can't help thinking they quite probably married because he was leaving for the war. I wonder if Mrs Hoag could be traced?