Malcolm cannot easily discover just how many deaths we should note for Remembrance Day. It is certainly well into seven figures: and that's just Britain.
Facing that staggering number, each of us can only comprehend the tragedies at an individual, personal level.
So Malcolm (who can count family dead and slaughtered, all the way back to Bosworth Field) finds himself reflecting on just two:
- Grandfather Edward (whose forename Malcolm's alter ego inherited) was with the Royal Field Artillery. He was killed by a traffic accident (the majority of deaths on the Western Front were not from bomb or blast); but he is buried among the other 1,334 at Doullens (above, right) in France.
- Cousin Jean, part of a searchlight team, was one of the 26 ATS girls killed when a German bomber took out North Drive, Great Yarmouth, on 11th May 1943.
1 comment:
My mother's sister was one of the ATS girls killed in Great Yarmouth on 11th May 1943. She was a cook and was in the kitchen preparing the breakfast for the girls who had just returned from an early morning march when the hostel took a direct hit. She did not need to be in the ATS, as she was in a 'protected profession' but only joined when a friend dared her.
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