My grandfather
We called him Pop. He was what is now called 'a career soldier' but the truth is he enlisted in the army in the 1890s because he was poor. He boxed for his regiment. He mentioned serving in India and Ireland and Gallipoli, but he didn't really talk about his war experiences. Like a lot of men, I suspect, he just wanted to put it all behind him. So I don't know what he did in India, except that one time on a troopship, a fakir put a lot of men under hypnosis and got them to take their clothes off.
This is the only photo I have of him, in Trafalgar Square:
The woman on the right is my grandmother. The other woman seems to have been her friend. We were told they were in London for the Armistice in 1918 but I can't be sure. I don't know what granny did in World War 1 either. Some sort of nursing maybe?
Pop hated the British state. He was a Socialist. He reserved his special contempt for the Conservative Party and the 'chinless wonders' of the aristocracy. And I'm quite sure he would be mad as hell to see all the fuss people make these days about poppies, parades and flag-waving.
My friend Maureen Primrose summed up my view this morning very well
<<It's after 11am now on the 11/11. With the jingoistic celebration of empire building (which was the root cause of WW1) behind us, can we now remember the men who came home so debilitated that they ravaged the country with Spanish flu resulting in more deaths than in the trenches?
How about the traumatised survivors with shell shock or those we shot as "cowards" who could take no more? Is it time for them now?
And how about the women who stood up to the establishment landlords when they tried to raise the rents on the sub-standard housing - organising the rent strikes. I mean women like Mary Barbour who now, at last, has a statue at Govan Cross. Is it time to remember them?
In our 21st century we are still under-funding health but making huge profits selling arms, neglecting war veterans with trauma issues and still allowing unscrupulous landlords and builders to make housing costs beyond the reach of many.>>
This is the only photo I have of him, in Trafalgar Square:
The woman on the right is my grandmother. The other woman seems to have been her friend. We were told they were in London for the Armistice in 1918 but I can't be sure. I don't know what granny did in World War 1 either. Some sort of nursing maybe?
Pop hated the British state. He was a Socialist. He reserved his special contempt for the Conservative Party and the 'chinless wonders' of the aristocracy. And I'm quite sure he would be mad as hell to see all the fuss people make these days about poppies, parades and flag-waving.
My friend Maureen Primrose summed up my view this morning very well
<<It's after 11am now on the 11/11. With the jingoistic celebration of empire building (which was the root cause of WW1) behind us, can we now remember the men who came home so debilitated that they ravaged the country with Spanish flu resulting in more deaths than in the trenches?
How about the traumatised survivors with shell shock or those we shot as "cowards" who could take no more? Is it time for them now?
And how about the women who stood up to the establishment landlords when they tried to raise the rents on the sub-standard housing - organising the rent strikes. I mean women like Mary Barbour who now, at last, has a statue at Govan Cross. Is it time to remember them?
Dame Edith Sitwell wrote:
"The living alone can nail to their promise
The ones who said
It shall not be so again!"
"The living alone can nail to their promise
The ones who said
It shall not be so again!"
In our 21st century we are still under-funding health but making huge profits selling arms, neglecting war veterans with trauma issues and still allowing unscrupulous landlords and builders to make housing costs beyond the reach of many.>>
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