Ninety years ago today, as war ended, my grandfather Frank was on leave in the UK. He was only granted three brief periods of leave during the course of The Great War – from the time of his arrival at Le Havre on 19 August 1914 to the end of the conflict in 1918. The last of these began on 6 November when he was allowed back to the UK via Boulogne for 14 days leave. It must have been somewhat unreal for him to hear the news when he was away from his wartime colleagues, just after he’d arrive back at home. I suspect he might have had a couple of beers to celebrate perhaps?
I’ve just been updating the “Tracking Frank” blog (now virtually complete up until the end of 1916) based on the information I’ve compiled at the National Archives. The war diaries include map links that I've created (thanks to those clever people at Google!) showing his movements for each year of WW1.
Photo: very poor photograph of Frank, taken in 1972.
I’ve just been updating the “Tracking Frank” blog (now virtually complete up until the end of 1916) based on the information I’ve compiled at the National Archives. The war diaries include map links that I've created (thanks to those clever people at Google!) showing his movements for each year of WW1.
Photo: very poor photograph of Frank, taken in 1972.
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