Remembrance. Lt. John Morgan-Richards, Royal Engineers: 30/11/1944

With apologies to those that also lurk on WW2Talk for the repetition.

Armistice Day.

My mother had no photographs of herself as a child, and maybe three or four of her family.
Her final sibling dying led to the revelation of a vast heap of family photos etc.
Finally got a chance to inspect them and begin scanning stuff.

Pretty much all I had on My Great Uncle was the CWGC reference & a few kind additions by WW2T chaps.
This has changed somewhat...

The man himself, Prewar:


As a Child:


As a Cellist (Apparently under the stage name 'John Gabalfa'. I'm going to assume some separation was required between life as an architect/Engineer & playing in orchestras.) :

 

Many other such images have bubbled up, but I'm already starting get an idea of a person, rather than just a few lines of CWGC & official info.
Then In that heap of photos, I picked out a tatt tatty plastic folder.
In the folder were letters and assorted other newspaper cuttings etc.

The substantial amount of letters tell a tale of someone that fought to get into the Army from a reserved occupation, was torpedoed (maybe twice, I haven't read them all yet), & was keen to keep his mother informed of his progress. They also have a slightly excited tone about finally getting into the war. He comes across as a good-natured chap


Christmas cards, etc.


In the middle of all that was this:


Finally! An image of the man in uniform.
Maybe somewhat ill at ease in uniform, or maybe rather uncomfortable at the portrait being taken, but the one clear image I've ever seen of Lt. John Morgan Richards RE in service.


And then, beneath all the letters. A very small envelope, different to all the other wartime mail, addressed to his mum, my Great Grandmother.
One that would doubtless make many here go 'Oh'.
It certainly did me.


And, of course, within:

You sort of sit and stare for a while.
I've got kids. I cannot imagine receiving such.

I wasn't fully aware that the CWGC sent images of grave markers etc., but there's a fair amount of correspondence with them.


Interesting change to one of the addressed envelopes:


And this.

 

Killed ten days after he sent a Christmas card to his mum...


What this overload of things relating to the man has largely done for me, other than somehow making him 'real', is strengthen the feeling that it is so important to remember these people.
And 'People' is the word. Not heroes or a 'greatest generation', just people; with all the traits and personal history that people carry, warts & all, who went off and engaged in a cause greater than themselves.
(Even the family's inability to speak of him is part of that story. I'd thought maybe stiff upper lip, but someone kept that folder, and someone had many of his photographs bundled in one place, sometimes taken from albums to add to the bundle.)

Sometimes they returned to carry on with normal life.
Sometimes they stayed where their lives were cut short, like my Great Uncle John.

Cheers,
~A

 

Thank you, mate.
First Armistice Day I've had a clue what he looked like, let alone the deluge of other stuff that came with the photographs.

And yeah, the telegram is... quite a thing.