“The bullets whizzed by my ears – you know, ping, ping, ping”
TOMMY GAY 1898–1999
Tommy was 100 years old when we filmed him in 1998, a proud Cockney, still living independently in Basildon. He offered us a cup of ‘Rosy Lee’ as soon as we arrived. As a patriotic 16-year-old, Tommy had enlisted on a whim while crossing Tower Bridge on his way to work in 1914. He lied about his age and decided to join his uncle’s regiment, the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers.
Two years later, Tommy’s unit was lined up ready to go over the top on 1 July 1916, the first day of the battle of the Somme. He was in one of the few successful attacks on that disastrous day. “We’d had a tot of rum that morning to help liven us up. They’d give you a good old dose, knowing what you had to do, because a man with his booze, he don’t care what he does – it makes you feel you could fight anything. I’d been made a lance corporal in the few months I’d been there. So of course, I was one of the first to get up and over the top in my regiment. ‘Come on, boys, here we go.’
We went forward with fixed bayonets. It was brilliant sunshine. The bullets actually whizzed by my ears at one point – you know, ping, ping, ping. I thought, how marvellous that they’ve missed me. I couldn’t understand it.
We got on the German lines because no man’s land was no distance at all. The Germans had mostly gone. In the evening, I was detailed to bury the dead. We’d been very happy with our success, but burying those men – that was a terrible thing, that was. But there you are, you had to do it.”
Soon afterwards, Tommy was taken as a prisoner of war and spent more than two years working in a German coal mine. The experience made him appreciate getting home safely to Blighty and the simple things in life. Tommy died a year after we filmed him, in 1999.