A name has been written by hand in blue ink on the back of this real photographic postcard: ‘Jack Pharoh’. Presumably that is the name of the boy who smiles out at us from the front. He is wearing an unbuttoned British soldier’s tunic and cap. The details of his cap badge are difficult to discern. || A real photographic postcard. || || A photograph of a boy, maybe named Jack Pharoh || Jack Pharoh ? || Photograph

Correspondence to Jack Appleby including Christmas cards from 'Cissie' and a manuscript letter to him from 'Paddie'

The twin brothers John Christopher (Jack, who was my grandfather) and Angelo (Lal) Stephens enlisted in 1914 with their cousin Arnold. Lal was in the Fourth Fusiliers Cavalry regiment. He wrote of the friendships he had formed and also about when his horse was killed. Both Jack and Lal were wounded at the Somme. Unfortunately Jack was left injured in the field overnight and because of this, he was not expected to live. He received treatment at an English hospital in Richmond and survived with shrapnel in his right leg. This would have been in late 1916. Amazingly, in 1923 or 1924, Jack met the man who had carried him off the field after he was injured. He died on 15th August 1969 and is buried in Dean’s Grange. Lal received treatment for his injury in a French hospital before being sent to England. He died in August 1980. Another brother, Jim, joined the air corps and upon returning home from the war became founder of the Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire. Also, my grandmother’s brother, Joseph Byrne, died on 1st March 1918 in France (possibly Ypres) He was a Dublin Fusilier. || Picture of cavalry regiment