Photo of Frederick Charles Wilson || My grandfather Frederick Charles Wilson was in the Royal Fusiliers, serving in Arras, France. He died on April 23, 1917. My husband's grandfather, William Jury, served, was wounded, sent home, had shrapnel in his head. He died in his 70s. Life was made more difficult at that age because of his wound.

My grandfather, James Roarty came from Letterkenny in Co Donegal, Ireland. He enlisted in the Royal Scots on 6th January, 1915 at Clydebank, Scotland. His service rank was Private and his service number was 16977. He was 19 years old. I have no idea why he signed up. I believe he was injured during the early days of the battle of Loos. I have a newspaper clipping listing him as one of the solders invalided to Dundee, and James is listed as being admitted in the Dundee Hospital book on 8th October, 1915. He only fought on the Western Front for a while. He never spoke of his experience or why he was sent back to Dundee. His discharge papers have a stamp stating that he was discharged in consequence of being ‘no longer physically fit for war service’. The stamp is so faint it will not be picked up in the accompanying image of the discharge papers. He was awarded: 1. The 1914-15 Star. The reverse has his service number, rank, name and unit 2. The British War Medal, 1914-18. His service number, rank, name and unit are impressed on the rim; 3. The Allied Victory Medal. His service number, rank, name and unit are impressed on the rim; 4. The Silver War Badge. The badge was originally issued to officers and men who were discharged or retired from the military forces as a result of sickness or injury caused by their war service. He was discharged on 6th November, 1917. My grandfather never discussed his experience in the war. I was aware that he had participated in WW1 but in the 1970’s in Donegal no one spoke about WW1. James returned to Letterkenny where he married and had two sons. He died on 7th November, 1973. || Image WW1-26-1 Army Form B2067 Character Reference for James Roarty, first page; Image WW1-26-2 Character Reference James Roarty, second page; Image WW1-26-3 Certificate of discharge for James Roarty, first page; Image WW1-26-4 Certificate of discharge for James Roarty, second page; Image WW1-26-5 Photo of medals awarded to James Roarty (front of medals); Image WW1-26-6 Photo of medals awarded to James Roarty (back of medals)

Company framed photograph. Caption title above frame: Machine Gun Corps Cadet Btn., Pirbright March 1917. Text inscribed on photograph itself: C.Coy, No. 2 Cadet BTN, 2nd course, March 1917. Photograph of Tom Henry Alexander in uniform. Photograph of the Alexander family when Tom was a boy. || Tom Henry Alexander, born January 1898, joined the Artists Rifles, which was attached to the 2nd London Regiment (part of the RN division). He was posted to France in 1917, and killed in action on October 30 1917 whilst attacking two concrete German machine gun emplacements, thigh deep in mud at Passchendaele. They were hit by a 100 yard sq artillary barrage, and casualties were approximately 80 per cent. Tom was sent to carry a message detailing the carnage, and was hit by a fragment to the head and died instantly. The following night, under cover of darkness, the machine gun positions were captured without loss of life by eleven men and one officer. The battle was won approximately four days later. This happened near to the Poelkapelle Road during the attack on Varlet Farm. His family never recovered from his loss.