Village life

I was born and brought up in Honley, a small village in the West Riding of Yorkshire. This morning I was delighted to receive a copy of Honley Civic Society's latest publication Honley Remembers, Village Life in the Great War. The volume is a  follow up to Honley in the Great War, and concentrates on the villagers and their contribution to the events of 1914 to 1919. I was pleased that the book contains mention of Lily and Arthur Fisher, my maternal grandfather's sister and brother who served as nurse and soldier.

Reading through the book I have come  across the names of men who I knew when I was a young boy but with no idea of what they had gone through in the war. For example, Stanley Charlesworth, village carpenter, undertaker and family friend who went through hell as a stretcher bearer at Ypres, Vimy Ridge and elsewhere. It is all very sobering.