Revelations

 Genealogy

A few weeks ago, I joined an Armed Forces group on Facebook; my aim was to try to trace my grandfather's military career during WW1. Coming from Middlesborough, I presumed, correctly, he joined the East Yorkshire Regiment, beyond that is a blank sheet. The East Yorks formed several brigades, so without further info, which at one time I had, the trail coulbn't tell where he fought.

In the group is a man whose interest include Genealogy which was useful, he asked what else would I like to know? I asked him if he could trace my grandmother, as I never knew her, or her name. Her name was Agnes Bell, and she was born not far from Middlesborough.

One thing which did come as a surprise to me, why I don't know, is I thought my mother's generation died in their mid-80's - apart from uncle John, who I knew died in his early 60's through cancer - it turned out they died in their late-60s to mid 70's the age I am now.

I do have one thing in my favour, I gave up smoking many years ago, and my lungs have recovered. Not that I was either a heavy smoker, or a cigarette smoker; the most I had was a couple of pipes a day.

Another thing of interest I found this month was my father's war record, from this I found he was on the SS Ranchi when she was bombed outside Alexandria in 1944. Going over  the postings, there was one that puzzled me; I later found out it was a posting to RAF Calderhall, Berwickshire, Scotland for driving.