The John & Andrée East Award
2019
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Valerie
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My East Family At War
My Grandad and Granny East, James and Rosina, had 9 children, 5 boys and 4 girls. They were to see their 5 sons and 2 of their grandsons join up to fight for their country. The second son, in the first World War, and one of their grandsons, in the second World War, were to lose their lives.
Their eldest child, a boy, was born in September 1896, nine months after their Christmas day wedding in 1895. Uncle Jim, Thomas James East, was the first member of their family to go to war, enlisting into the Hampshire Regiment on 31 August 1914, three weeks before his 18th birthday. A note on the reverse side of a family photo, taken outside their house in Ludgershall about 1914, mentions ‘Jim came home for New Year’. I believe he had been training in Ireland. He was sent eventually to the Balkans, arriving on 5 August 1915 but was quite badly injured in a battle on 21 August 1915 receiving gunshot wounds to both shoulders. He was eventually invalided out on 27 June 1916, being ‘no longer fit for War service’. I was told Granny used to visit him in hospital once he was back in England. I remember Uncle Jim as a quiet man, spending long hours in his shoe repair shop which was attached to their cosy cottage in Castle Street, Ludgershall.
Their second eldest son Billy, William Henry East, born in April 1898 was conscripted, signing up at Marlborough on 23 January 1917. He was killed in action in France, during the battle of the Sambre, a week before the end of the war, on 4 November 1918, the same day as the well known poet, Wilfred Owen. Grandad took the loss of his son very badly and spent a lot of time and money organising a fund raising concert for the erection of a war memorial in the village of Ludgershall, Wiltshire, his own business suffering financially.
I also understand Granny suffered a nervous breakdown.
I also understand Granny suffered a nervous breakdown.
Their next son, my Uncle Arthur Frederick East, born in 1906, was a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy. In 1939 he was living in Portsmouth, with his wife Hazel. He was part of the Atlantic fleet protecting the convoys during the Second World War and told my mother he had been ‘tipped out’ in the Atlantic three times. ’
Their youngest son, my Uncle Jack, John Jellicoe Kitchener East probably had the most harrowing experience of all of the brothers. Born in 1916, he was conscripted in 1940, and after training was on his way to Bombay, then Singapore after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. Jack became a prisoner of war on 15 February 1942 ‘without having fired a shot in anger’. He kept a diary while he was a prisoner which he unfortunately lost but 40 years later he was able to recall his experiences in conversation with a writer from his local paper in Blackburn. He remembered working on the notorious Railway of Death in Nepal, seeing his boots reduced to dust overnight by ants and illnesses such as scabies, beriberi and malaria. He also saw the devastation of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb.
Uncle Jack bore no malice to his captors but was to suffer nightmares for the rest of his life. He finished his account with his arrival home to Ludgershall. Unfortunately his father had died in 1943. His mother baked his favourite meal, steak and kidney pie, which because his stomach had shrunk, he couldn’t eat much of. Soon after his fiancé, Betty, arrived from Blackburn, to welcome him home.
Uncle Jack bore no malice to his captors but was to suffer nightmares for the rest of his life. He finished his account with his arrival home to Ludgershall. Unfortunately his father had died in 1943. His mother baked his favourite meal, steak and kidney pie, which because his stomach had shrunk, he couldn’t eat much of. Soon after his fiancé, Betty, arrived from Blackburn, to welcome him home.
The last son to go to war was my father, Ernest, who was born in 1911. He was conscripted in December 1943, two months after I was born. He passed the entrance examination for the Fleet Air Arm and joined HMS Ganges at Ipswich for his initial training. He spent the final year of his service in the Aircraft Repair Yard, based at HMS Merlin, Royal Naval Air Station, Donibristle near Dalgety Bay, Fife.
Uncle Jim had 2 sons, William and Alfred, who both joined the navy. Alfred, the second son, was serving aboard ‘the Barham’ during World War II, as part of the Mediterranean fleet. On 25 November 1941, the ship was hit by three torpedoes and exploded with the loss of over two-thirds of her crew, one of them being Alfred East, my cousin, aged 17. Dad corresponded with his nephew, Alfred, during the war and from one of these letters I discovered the Barham had been damaged in the battle for Crete six months earlier, and Fred was aboard while she was being repaired in Durban, having a good time.
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