With the last of April's 's "Twosome" theme. I take a look at brothers and sisters together - beginning with an ideal match to the prompt of two brothers.
The Danson Brothers
Two of my great uncles - Tom and George Danson in World War One army uniform.
The brothers were from a large family of eight sons and one daughter, with five sons serving in the army, two of whom died in the conflict.
Tom (left) worked as a clerk at Poulton Station, but I know little else about him. But George's story is a tragic one that I have featured before on my blog.
George Danson (1894-1916) was the favourite uncle of my mother and aunt, perhaps because he was nearest to them in age and took on the role of the big brother. He worked on W.H. Smith bookstalls at different railway stations, joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and was killed 16th September 1916 at the Battle of the Somme, just a week after his 22nd birthday, buried at The Guards Cemetery at Les Boeufs.
I was lucky enough to find on Ancestry his service record, as many were destroyed in bombing in the Second World War. His medical report stated he was 5'3" tall, weighed 109 lbs. (under 8
stone), with size 34 1/2 chest and he wore glasses - a slight figure to
be a stretcher bearer in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
"I had to assist the wounded at a dressing station
and stuck to it for
about 40 hours".
It's blooming hard work being a stretcher bearer in the
field.
On Friday I was in a big bombardment and will say it was like a continual thunder and lightening going off. As I write there are blooming big guns going off abut 50 yards away every few minutes. Don't I wish that all of us could get home. Wouldn't that be great, lad, there's a good time coming and I hope we shall all be there to join in."
Sadly it was not to be.
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The Weston Brothers
The Danson Sisters
The two little girls at
the front are my Aunt Edith and my mother Kathleen, taken around 1911 in what I was told was a procession to
mark Empire Day. I love their frilly dresses, little boots and large
hats.