Neil Wilkes has found letters about his family during WWI. I have five sons fighting for King and Country - the discovery of his great grandmothers World War One letter which began with these heart wrenching words is a moment that Neil Wilkes will never forget. Without even knowing the story that lies behind them they speak volumes. Father-of-two Neil Wilkes, born in Elmdon, Solihull, unearthed them during a family voyage of discovery that will never leave him. For they were written by his great grandmother Annie Wilkes during the Great War. Neil gradually unearthed the heart wrenching story behind the words and the huge sacrifice his heroic family made. The performance and risk manager said: “The words that ‘I have five sons fighting for King and Country’ were in a letter that I found myself holding at the Public Records Office in Kew. “I’d just found them in an old, dusty brown Admiralty file dating back nearly 100 years. “This letter left me emotional and the words have never left me since.” The 46-year-old’s story starts with his granddad, Harry Leopold Wilkes, who was born in Birmingham in 1891, and was “greatly affected by his Great War experience”. Neil said: “As a child I remembered seeing granddad’s green toenails (trench foot) and the German shell he had on the mantelpiece, which he had dug up still hot, from the trench where it landed near to him. “Granddad died when I was 11-years-old but I remember him well as we lived next door to him in Elmdon. “These memories stirred a desire to find out more. “My granddad had four brothers, of which three of them (and himself) served in the Royal Navy at some point before and during the war. Three of them are listed on the Southsea Memorial. “All of them were brought up in Birmingham – about as far from the sea as you can get in the UK. They are also commemorated at St Mary and St Ambrose Church, Raglan Road, Edgbaston, and on the roll of honour in Birmingham’s Hall of Memory. “My youngest great uncle, Frank James Wilkes, served aboard several ships before being torpedoed on board HMS Redbreast, a fleet messenger carrying mail. “On July 15, 1917, it was sunk by German Submarine UC16 in the Adriatic. UC16 was later sunk herself. I have a copy of the Admiralty Board inquiry into the sinking. “They tried to blame the captain who died in the attack for not zig zagging, or mounting the appropriate watch, but the verdict was not guilty. Frank’s body was lost at sea. “Alfred Thomas Wilkes also served on several ships before being posted to HMS Hyacinth. Hyacinth was sent to patrol German East Africa in 1916. “Whilst on one patrol, on 11th April 1916 they chased a German gun runner the ‘Konigsberg’, off the coast of Zanzibar. “When the German turned up river, Arthur and several other sailors followed in two smaller tenders launched from Hyacinth. Arthur’s was called ‘Echo’ and was armed with a cannon and small arms. “They chased the gun runners for some time but came under fire from the river bank from German artillery and Maxim machine guns. “This gun battle went on for some hours. During this time Arthur was killed along with two others and several others were wounded. Arthur was buried at sea that day; I have the exact co-ordinates of the burial taken from the ship’s log but sadly no picture of Arthur.” Neil added: “The association with the sea doesn’t end here. I suspect Arthur and Frank may have been influenced by their eldest bother, Samuel, who served in the Royal Navy for five years from 1907 until 1912. “Sadly he was killed on the Somme in September 1918, whilst serving in the 10th Batallion Royal Warwickshire Regiment and is buried at Le Touret cemetery in France. “My granddad served in the 6th Batallion Royal Warwickshire Regiment in France from 1914 until 1916 and then joined the Royal Navy until discharge in 1918. I have thus far been unable to find out why he was discharged from the army, but suspect ill health. “He had served on trawlers from Taranto in Italy, where the captain of his boat accidentally blew it up whilst refuelling in harbour. My Granddad was blown into the sea and survived, the captain did not. “Granddad was greatly affected by his Great War experiences and didn’t settle for many years after the war. He moved home many times around the UK until eventually settling back in Birmingham and becoming an ARP during the Second World War. “My dad had a very nomadic childhood because of this. “To my knowledge only one other Wilkes served in the Great War, luckily surviving, but with some injuries and stories of hard drinking in civilian life. “He was called William and served in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. He served in France where he was wounded and in Salonika. He was invalided out in 1918. “I have learnt a great deal from my research and have the utmost respect for my Brummie ancestors. “The most poignant moment was finding the letter at the start of my story. “Written by my great grandmother, Annie, who after hearing the news of Arthur’s death wrote to the Admiralty Board proudly stating ‘I have five sons fighting for King and Country’ and wanting to find out more information. “It is hard to comprehend losing three sons in a war so terrible but Annie and her descendants can be proud and humble in the knowledge of what our brave ancestors did and how they fought for freedom, paying the ultimate sacrifice.”
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 14:41:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015