jacey | Grandpa: an original Tommy (Reply)

julesjones posted about Henry Allingham, Britain's oldest man, one of the three surviving WW1 veterans in the UK, and the last living founder member of the Royal Air Force, who turned 112 today. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7439117.stm

I followed her link and read up on the amazing Mr Allingham.

It made my think of my own grandfather who would have been Henry's contemporary and who went through most of the First World War in the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, being invalided out at Passchendale in 1917 with a leg injury that kept him in hospital for a year. He was a quiet man who always took the line of least resistance. Kind and gentle. Not academic, possibly due to lack of anything but basic schooling around the turn of the century. I never saw him read a book or write more than a shopping list or a very brief note in an awkward hand. The only book he ever owned was a very ancient, abused copy of Culpeper's Herbal, which I still have. I often wonder why he had that book. Had it belonged to a family member? Was it his only avenue of health care for the first fifty years of his life (pre NHS)?

After the First World War and his discharge form hospital (in Scotland for some reason) he returned home to Mapplewell in the West Riding of Yorkshire and went to work at the pit face at North Gawber Colliery. He married my gandma, Annie Shaw and my mum was born in 1925. He continued to work at North Gawber until his retirement in the mid 1950s. After retirement he bacame one of the first 'lollipop men' in Britain. (A schools crossing patrol officer, on duty to see children safely across the road at school time.)

Anyway here he is: Thomas Benett 1893 - 1977
In his KOYLI uniform. He made corporal eventually.

And a wedding pc. Thomas Bennett and Annie Shaw. Date? Around 1922 I think.

And then came Joan. It was quite unusual to have only one child in the 1920s I guess.

And when the Second World War came along he joined Dad's Army

He used to tell me tall tales of things that had happened to him in his youth - oh how I wish I'd written them down. I remember something about his best friend eating a pie that had been set on a windowsil to cool by a neighbour and being chased down the street by the angry piemaker... and the story of him and the same best friend catching a train to Pontefract barracks to join the army when war broke out.