Lovely but sad evening last night listening to stories from WW1 brought to life by Frank Carlyle and the cast at St.Georges Hall. We were told stories of Rudyard Kipling and his son John , who asked his father to use his connections to help him enlist , even though he was only 17 and plagued with the same eyesight problems his father had. He enlisted with the Irish Guard as a second lieutenant and was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915. The story goes that he went over the top and a whistle was blown to retreat. However , due to his eyesight problems , instead of going back to his lines , he wandered towards the German guns. We heard of the Pals regiments , the brainchild of Lord Derby , the Liverpool Pals being the first. His thought being that if you enlisted with all your mates there would be a close bond and you would all look out for each other. The sad fact was that whole streets lost all their men. We passed through a mock shelling scene set at the same decibel level as encountered in the war - it is no wonder soldiers suffered from shell shock. The most interesting part for me was hearing the stories of the brave soldiers and medics from the Merseyside area who were awarded the Victoria Cross. Men like Richard George Masters , Albert White , David Jones , Harold Ackroyd , Ernest Wright , Alexander Boughey and Noel Godfrey Chavasse who received two Victoria Cross medals. He was the only serviceman to receive two VC medals for bravery during the Great War. Amazingly he was a medic who saved many lives and not a combat soldier. I loved the great story of Birkenhead born John Thomas Davies who was thought killed in action in France when his Company was ordered to withdraw. He held the enemy back allowing most of his Company to get away safely. His family were told he was dead and he was awarded the VC for his bravery. He had however been taken prisoner and taken to a camp in what is now Poland. John is believed to be the only person ever to have been granted a posthumous Victoria Cross while still alive. Great stories , harrowing pictures and scenes , great narration by Frank Carlyle and great acting by the small cast. I sincerely hope we never see a war like that again , but it is still going on around the world , places like Syria etc. Let us hope the Ukraine crisis does not escalate. ****** PEACE NOT WAR ******
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 17:47:33 +0000
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