Alex - in remembrance

[wren_kt7oz]

Although this is a little late, have been thinking of all the lost sons and brothers and husbands and lovers and ...

The lines from Eric Bogle's heartbreaking No Man's Land came to my mind. The ones that go:

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory en-shrined
And though you died back in nineteen-six-teen
To that loyal heart are you always nine-teen
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enshrined forever behind a glass pane
In an old photo-graph, torn and tattered and stained
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame

Well I have one photo that for some reason sits in the cubby hole on my desk. I pull it out to look at it every now and again, even though it's of a man who died decades before I was born.

His name was Alex - Alexander Hamilton, no less - and he was one of the three brothers that my grandmother lost in the first world war.

The only one of her brothers that I ever knew (and he died when I was quite small) was Uncle Claude. The only thing I really remember about him was that as a child I thought of him as "the man who breathed funny". Claude was a victim of mustard gas in France.

Anyway, it occurred to me today, that I'm probably the only person living who in some way remembers Alex.

I think I would have liked him.

So I wanted to share him with all you who read this.

Which is my oh so small contribution to Remembrance.

W


(Oh, and if you'd like the rest of the lyrics, they're here:

http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/noman.html)

Alex My great uncle - photo sent from England in Dec 1917.

Comments

[mdlaw.livejournal.com]

Lovely tribute. m

[wren-kt7oz.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[grneyedwoman.livejournal.com]

Wren, My god your post touched me deeply.My family has been so blessed. We have sent so many of our men to war through the generations and they have come back. Right after 9/11 my daughter was deployed to Uzbekistan. A frightening time for us all. What struck me was my father,a WW2 veteran, says to my mother"I never thought I would ever send my grand daughter off to war". She came home safe and endured one other. My son is in the army now and will probably go back for a second deployment. I have to wonder will we ever figure it out? The lyrics of this song touched my heart. I've printed it out. Will keep it near. Thank you.
Cindy

[wren-kt7oz.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I can't even imagine the level of anxiety that families must feel when their loved ones are away on active service. I don't know how you cope with that every day.

And for that generation (of the First World War), the losses were so high. I mean, in the flying corp for instance at one point the average life expectancy after they arrived in France was measured in days.

Australia virtually lost a whole generation of young men and it changed the country forever.

That they died fighting "the war to end wars" and that your family is still facing the anxiety of your loved ones being overseas fighting yet another war is, of course, the dreadful irony.

I hope all goes well with your son - and your daughter.

Thank you for sharing your story.

W

[callie89.livejournal.com]

What a lovely and touching tribute. I thank you for sharing it.

;-)

[wren-kt7oz.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I appreciate it.