Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
11/11/1918-11/11/2018: 100 years since end of World War 1
Readers share their memories of loved ones who fought… and died
So proud to have two grandads who fought for freedom
As we near the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, Alexandra Jones, 77, of Droitwich, Worcs, tells of her two grandfathers who fought in the conflict. One collected messages from Lawrence of Arabia, and the other died in a battle pivotal in the Allies’ victory.
People boast about every little thing these days. But real heroes, the men who fought in the First World War, never boasted. They were so humble. Hardly anyone knew what my grandad Thomas Clayton did in the Great War because he didn’t like to talk about it. But, sitting on his knee in front of the range in his cottage, he told me some stories I’ve never forgotten.
Grandad fought in the Dardanelles Campaign in Turkey and had to ride a horse into the desert to collect messages from Lawrence of Arabia. During an exchange, Lawrence – a British intelligence officer who fought with guerrilla Arabs rebelling against Ottoman rule – gave him two oranges, a gift he never forgot.
Grandad, who enlisted with the Herefordshire Regiment in 1912, fought in France and had red foot for the rest of his life because of frostbite.
He told me of the 7,000 men who fought from Hereford, seven came home. He was demobbed in 1919 and worked as head gardener for former Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. He died in 1987, aged 94. I discovered, only after my mum died in 1980, that Thomas wasn’t my biological grandad. Mum’s birth certificate listed her surname as Bird. Her dad was killed during the war and her mother went on to marry Thomas.
Mum’s dad was Private John Bird, a machine gunner. He was killed, aged 36, in the Battle of Cambrai, in France, on November 30, 1917.
I feel immensely proud to have had two hero grandads. I wish I’d known more about them.