Friendship in the Forces - Sepia Saturday

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt photograph  shows two friends, workmates perhaps.  wearing similar jackets.  I take a look back at family  revealing camaraderie in wartime -  a fitting tribute to them as we near Remembrance Day.    

 The Danson Brothers

 Two of my great uncles  - Tom and George Danson  in World War One army uniform.

The brothers   were from a large family of eight sons and one daughter, with five sons serving in the army, two  of whom died in the conflict.  

Tom (left) worked as a clerk at Poulton Station, but I know little else about him.  But George's story is a tragic one that I have featured  before on my blog.

 George Danson (1894-1916)   was the favourite uncle of my mother and aunt, perhaps because he was nearest to them in age and took on the role of the big brother.  He worked on W.H. Smith bookstalls at different railway stations, joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and was killed 16th September 1916 at  the Battle of the Somme,    just a week after his 22nd birthday, buried at The Guards Cemetery at Les Boeufs.

 I was lucky enough to find  on Ancestry his service record, as many were destroyed in bombing in the Second World War. His  medical report stated he was 5'3" tall, weighed 109 lbs. (under 8 stone), with size 34 1/2 chest and he wore glasses - a slight figure to be a stretcher bearer in the Royal Army Medical Corps.   Two of his letters home are in the  family memorabilia

"I had to assist the wounded at a dressing station and stuck to it for about 40 hours.  It's blooming hard work being a stretcher bearer in the field.

On Friday I was in a big bombardment and will say it was like a continual thunder and lightening going off.  As I write there are blooming big guns going off abut 50 yards away every few minutes. Don't I wish that all of us could get home.  Wouldn't that be great, lad,  there's a good time coming and I hope we shall all be there to join in."

Sadly it was not to be. 

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Grandad, William Danson (on the right)  with two colleagues.  He served in the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, fought at the mudbath that was the Battle of  Passchendaele and won the Military Medal at Givenchy, with the postcards and photographs  below kept in the shoe-box of family memorabilia.

Some  humour even in war time is illustrated by the photograph of my grandfather William Danson, that shows the camaraderie existed  amongst soldiers.

  

 

 This photo  intrigued me when I first saw it as a child. There was no Scottish connections at all on my mother's side of the family, so why was Granddad wearing a kilt and a tammie?   

 

 The story was that he became friendly with some Scottish soldiers, and as a laugh he had dressed up in one of their uniforms and had his picture taken to send home.  It must have been taken in France as the reverse of the photograph  indicates it is a "Carte Postale" with space for "Correspondance" and "Addresse".

 

 

 

 I wrote to the regimental museum at Lancaster Castle for more information and  was sent a copy of an extract from the Regimental War Diary,  and the award citation which read: 

 

"For conspicuous gallantry in action at GIVENCHY on 9th April 1918,This N.C.O commanded a Lewis Gun section...He did good work with his gun during  the attack inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. When the other N.C.O. in command of the other Lewis Gun was wounded,he took over the gun and controlled the fire of both teams".

 

9th April was five  days after Granddad's 33rd birthday,  Grandad was a taciturn country man who before conscription had been a  livestock foreman at the local auction mart.  He,   like many of those who had experienced the horrors of the First World War, would never talk bout  their experiences. 

 

But Granddad left a moving legacy of his war   in the many embroidered postcards he sent and brought back home.   These remain my  family treasures. 

 

 

 

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My husband's uncle Matty (Matthew Iley White) of South Shields, is amongst this group of soldiers perched on a rock in India.  

Matty )1914-1978)  served in the  Durham Light Infantry in India 1933-1937
, as listed in his service book below.

  

 

Matty, seated on the left,

 tucking into his food at army camp  

  

In the Sudan, where Matty served March to October 1937  

 Images taken from Matty''s own album

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My great Uncle Frank Danson  (1892-1977)  was the seventh of eight sons born    to James Danson, a joiner journeyman and Maria Rawcliffe of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire.  Five sons served in the First World War - I have been unable  to trace a service record for Frank.  with many destroyed in enemy bombing in World War Two.  At some point he  was injured and was in hospital in Malta when these photographs were taken - found in the collection of my great aunt Jennie Danson - the only girl in the family.

 On the reverse in Jenny's handwriting, she identified Frank as on the back row right.

 

 This  photograph seems to be some kind of celebration.  Frank is front row left,  dressed formally in his uniform and cap, but what about those two fellows on the  back row in what appears to be their pyjamas and beanie hats?

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs. 

 

 

 

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