2014-11-10 17:19:00

1918: A message from the King to returned prisoners of war


(Vatican Radio) To mark a century since the  Great War Jill Bevilacqua shares with us the story of her father who enlisted, on the 3rd of September 1914, in the Queen's Westminster Rifles as a common soldier in the ranks as Rifleman A.H. Tyler.

Among the documents passed on to Jill by her father is a letter from King George V which was sent to all returned Prisoners of War from Buckingham Palace. The date is 1918 and reads: "The Queen joins me in welcoming you on your release from the miseries and hardships, which you have endured with so much patience and courage. During these many months of trial, the early rescue of our gallant officers and men from the cruel captivity has been uppermost in our thoughts. We are thankful that this longed for day has arrived, and that back in the old country you will be able once more to enjoy the happiness of a home and to see good days among those who anxiously look for your return". 

The story she tells of her father's progress in the war, she warns, is perforce fragmentary, a combination of what she recalls him telling her, what his sister Ruby, who was ten years younger told her, what she has gleaned from the history of his regiment, with some of his own annotations as well as from documents and photographs in her possession.

Listen to Jill Bevilacqua as she tells the story of her father as a soldier on the front in France during World War I, in a programme produced by Veronica Scarisbrick: 

Posted to France on the 1st of February 1915, just before his 19th birthday the first note  Rifleman Tyler made in the regimental history is for May 29th:" Inspection by Sir John French", who was Commander- in -Chief at the  time. Next day they were over the border into Belgium and marching through Ypres, which our man notes was still "smouldering"... 

 

 








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