Remembrance
Our family’s story of service
It seemed appropriate on #RemembranceDay to look through this old suitcase of family documents…
Here's a little taster of some of the things I found...
On my father's side, both his parents, Mary Campbell Tyre of Argyll in Scotland and William Ewart Bradley of Durham in the north of England, were civil servants @UKCivilService so they were seconded out of London to Wales during the #SecondWorldWar to work on government business.
My Scottish Granny Mary lost a number of male family members at sea setting sail from the West Coast of Scotland.
While my paternal great grandfather, also called William Ewart Bradley, was Mayor of Durham and he and his wife the Mayoress were very involved with the @PoppyLegion.
I came across this programme for the annual dinner of the #BishopAuckland Branch of the @PoppyLegion Dinner in 1937 and a telegram from HM The King, dated 11 November 1937.
The plum pudding with rum sauce sounds tasty…
This is my maternal grandmother Esther Joy Archer along with the other brave women of "the Wrens", the Women's Royal Naval Service of the @RoyalNavy. Women made a very significant contribution to World War Il and it is important to remember and honour their service and sacrifice.
My Irish grandfather Robert Blackburn was determined the legacy of #WW2 should be peace, dedicating his career to international education through @iborganisation, supplementing involvement with the @UN and the Council for Education in World Citizenship with work in refugee camps.
Still on my mother's side of the family tree, my maternal great grandfather Norman Ernest Archer was a British naval officer, one of two @RoyalNavy officers stationed with the Russian Black Sea Fleet during the naval conflict in the Black Sea in 1914-1917.
This is our family's story, each family will have their own.
Finally, it's moving to read this handwritten inscription from my great great grandfather Herbert Pease, who lost his son Ronald in the Battle of the Somme:
"Keep for future generations to read".
#LestWeForget
Herbert Pease's grandfather the Liberal MP Joseph Pease, the first Quaker permitted to take his seat in @UKParliament, became President of the #PeaceSociety, a pioneering British pacifist organisation in 1860 a post he held until his death.
