Basket Empty
This week on our weekly show and tell and look back at old work, we’re heading back to 2022. I dug this one out from a series I did on Stalybridge in the snow, which feels pretty fitting given the snowstorm outside right now, the war memorial buried under it all.
Proof that every now and then I can do “nice”, not everything has to be grim or unsettling… very occasionally. 😂
In warmer weather I like to sit here for lunch, it’s a peaceful corner of town by the river, easy to miss if you’re just passing through. I didn’t know them of course, they died in WWI, but whenever I’m here I always end up finding my family member’s name among those listed on the wall.
During a school project I remember writing to the MOD to see if I could learn more about him, only to be told his records had been lost in a fire during WWII, so I thought I was out of luck.
As part of that same project I spent time in the library going through old newspaper archives on one of those old slide machines. I expected to find a small obituary at most, but instead my great great (great?) uncle made the front page, having sadly passed away while pulling his entire squad out of a fire during a mortar attack in the trenches. A hero.
A heavy story, but a pretty incredible thing to uncover when I found the full page.
UK folks, stay warm out there in the cold.