Official Army Photograph

A topical British postcard || An unknown artist has portrayed a crying baby on the front of this postcard. The caption below reads, ‘No Sugar, no Potatoes / no nothing!’. The printed text on the back includes ‘Copyright London’, ‘“CURLY LOCKS” ON SHORT RATIONS’, ‘Raphael Tuck & Sons’ “OILETTE” Postcard No. 3128. / ART PUBLISHERS TO THEIR MAJESTIES THE KING & QUEEN’, and ‘Printed in England’. The postcard has been franked ‘Scarborough then in the North Riding of Yorkshire, 9 AUG 17’. A pencilled hand has addressed it to ‘Mrs Brook / 13 Beechwood View / Busby / Leeds then in the West Riding of Yorkshire’. The accompanying message reads: ‘Dear Mother / Just a PC it is raining here today had a terrible thunder storm last night what time are you going on Sat let me know I should like to come for the week-end if there is room love from Ada’. || || A topical British postcard || Postcard || Front

Victory medal; British War Medal; Joseph's service record; modern photographs of visit to Ginchy. || My father, Joseph Doyle from Campile, joined up to fight for 'little Catholic Belgium'. He didn't join at the beginning of the war because his mother was unwell, but joined after her death. He first saw action at Ypres Ieper and he often talked about the horrors of trench warfare: the incessant rain and the trenches full of water. He also spoke about being trapped in the trenches under shell fire, having to dig holes in the sides to put the bodies into, and listening to the he rats gnawing on the bodies. He even said that at times he and his fellow soldiers were walking on bodies at the bottom of the trench. He also remembered being trapped for days in a shell crater wit nothing to eat but jam - he never ate jam again. Despite his terrible experiences, I never saw signs of trauma in him: he was a really placid man. Joseph was wounded in 1917 at Ginchy and both my brother and I have visited there. A bullet went through his arm below the elbow and he was eventually invalided back to England and discharged die to his injury. Joseph's brother, my uncle James also fought although I don't know what regiment he fought in. James was gassed which affected his voice and eyes. After my father came back from the war he had a pension for a while and often went for a drink on pension day. Another memory he had was of seeing a Pierce plough, made in the foundry in Wexford town, on a battlefield in France. He also brought home a belt from a giant German corpse but later my mother made him put it in a shed and it eventually disappeared. He also talked of the rations the soldiers had, about tinned beef and how awful it was. Joseph had no trouble with his arm after 1920 and after a series of operations including one carried out by Sir Arthur Chance. He was in Dublin having an operation in 1920 on Bloody Sunday 21 November and he saw some of the bodies shot by Michael Collins' 'Squad'. The men were in their pyjamas, having been shot dead in their bedrooms. Joseph was also arrested that afternoon as part of a crowd on O'Connell Street, but one of the officers who had been in the Irish Guards recognised him and let him go. After the foundation of the Irish Free State he got land from an estate that was being broken up and he got a local builder to build a home for him. He married a local woman and they farmed the land together. || || Joseph Doyle's British War Medal, obverse. || British War Medal - Joseph Doyle || Medal