Band of brothers

SIR – Your report (“Family gave 10 brothers to the Great War”, February 6) reminded me of my 10 Pearson uncles, who also served in the First World War (and one of them also in the Second World War).

My Pearson grandparents from Perth had one girl (my mother) and 10 boys. All my uncles enlisted with Scottish regiments. As with the Giles brothers you mention, the youngest one, Alexander, was underage.

Two of my uncles, Charles and Robert, did not return. James died of his injures in 1920; David, the eldest, lost both his legs. Joe was gassed but survived, though he suffered from “shell shock” for the rest of his life. Uncles Thomas, John, George, James and Alexander all made it through. Alexander enlisted with the Black Watch in the Second World War and fought in North Africa, Sicily and Monte Cassino, where only 97 from his 1,000-strong unit survived. Fortunately he was one of them.

I am proud of them all, especially Alexander, whom I remember well. He never spoke of the war and appeared to have not a care in the world, but he must have had bad memories.

Philip Pearson Robertson

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk