Miracle of soldier blown up at Somme then stranded for 2 days in shell hole
11/11/1918-11/11/2018: 100 years since end of World War 1 Readers share their memories of loved ones who fought for freedom
As we approach the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, we have been telling the stories of the ordinary people who made an extraordinary sacrifice for our country. Here, Derek Timmins, 82, from Wigan, shares the amazing tale of how his indomitable grandad survived the Somme...
My grandfather Corporal Walter Timmins enlisted into the Royal Field Artillery in January 1915. Before the war, he worked in the coal mines and was 30 years old when he signed up, making him quite an old soldier.
His regiment was sent to the Balkans, then to the Dardanelles. He survived the landing at Cape Helles in April 1915 but later contracted malaria and spent six weeks in an Egyptian hospital. Then he was sent to France and, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, he went over the top and was blown up by a large artillery shell. It created a Jack
Johnson hole (which was named after the heavyweight boxing champion and is what they called the craters made by the impact of the German shells).
My grandad was holed up – literally – in there for two days before he was rescued. He had nine shrapnel wounds and lost his right kidney. His right arm also had to be amputated.
He was honourably discharged on December 23, 1916, because of his severe injuries. He received a letter signed from George V. For the rest of his life my grandad served as a postman in the Leigh area of Wigan. He died of a heart attack in 1945 when he was 61. I was nine and I remember him as a very quiet man. I knew he had lost his arm because he had a hook but he never told me what happened to him in the war. It wasn’t until I picked up a copy of our local paper from the time that I realised what he had been through. He had a hero’s welcome when he came home, with a party in the street.
He had five children, including my dad – also named Walter – who went on to serve as a sergeant major in the Second World War. I served in the Army for 20 years before working in the textiles industry, so he definitely inspired me too.