Our speaker this month was local historian and author Richard Broadhead who gave a very interesting talk on ‘Soldiers of the Great War’.
Richard has written several books about the soldiers from Wiltshire towns and villages. He gave us an insight into their backgrounds and family life; such a contrast once they had enlisted in the army. Many young men did not survive their first few days in battle; five out of every nine men were casualties.
Families often never found out what had happened to their sons and husbands. Many of the men named on the war memorials did heroic and selfless acts, but sadly little is remembered of their bravery. Many have no memorials at all.
Richard through the society ‘Finding the Forgotten’ has been trying to rectify this situation by finding the graves of these forgotten war casualties.