Remembering....
Colin Charles Cope....Uncle Col
My Mother's only brother.
Died on the 9th of March 1945 aged 25
Shot whilst a prisoner of War
He died so near the end of the War that the news of his death was never sent out.
My Grandmother bought a ribbon for the house cat to wear on his return.
(They lived on a farm) but he never came back and it wasn't until my Mother heard that another POW had returned home to his village and went to visit him for news that she found out the truth and then she had to go home and tell her parents.
V. The Soldier
from the Sonnet Sequence 1914 by Rupert Brooke (1915)
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Buried in Prague War Cemetery in the Czech Republic.
Very evocative .. Thank you for posting I am so moved by this
ReplyDeleteHow truly dreadful to learn of a son's death in such a way. And how dreadful for your mother to have to break such news.
ReplyDeleteIts hard to really imagine what life was like back then. This still seems like an awful way to discover that your loved one is lost forever.
ReplyDeleteYour poor mother . And to have to go home , knowing what she had to tell her parents .
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine anything worse .
Oh Val, the part about the ribbon made my eyes water. Bless your mom. xx
ReplyDelete