Henry Ellis Hoad

[desperance]

Damn. This is further to my last:

arkessian checked the 1901 census, and found a Henry E Hoad born in Westgate in 1897: exactly the right age, exactly the right location. Hurrah!

Prompted by papersky, I checked records of soldiers killed in the First World War.

And found a record of one Henry Ellis Hoad, of Newcastle on Tyne. The site wouldn't tell me anything more without I paid up money, which I am reluctant to do; but even so...

Sigh.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Jo, thank you. Truly.

[carandol.livejournal.com]

It's now a song! http://carandol.livejournal.com/279193.html

Poor old Harry must have been almost the same age as my grandfather, who was a corporal in the Lancashire Fusiliers and lost most of his comrades going over the top at one of the big battles, I think Passchendale. He fought in WW2 as well, and lived to be 78; he used to tell me gruesome tales of the trenches when I was a teenager and my parents weren't around.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yay song! You guys are sooo cool...

My own grandfathers were just a tad older than Harry, enough that my father's father didn't have to fight WW2. My mum's dad was a professional soldier, though, a major in the Scots Guards and stationed in Singapore, so he spent much of the second war in Changi jail. He died before I could even try to get him to talk about it, while I was still a small boy. Dad's dad lived to be 92, and was wonderful, but wouldn't talk about the war.

[carandol.livejournal.com]

Well, thank you for the inspiration!