IN LOVING MEMORY OF UNCLE ERNEST

The man in the photograph, known to Mr. HCB as Uncle Ernie, was his father's brother, and he was killed in action on 10th July 1944.

Mr. HCB (John) had a cutting from the local newspaper giving information about his uncle's death and he knew that he had a girlfriend, but after a lot of research into the family history, I found out that they had actually got married in 1942, so I then set about trying to discover more.

I got in touch with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and they sent a photograph of Ernie's gravestone from the War Cemetery at Banneville-la-Campagne in France.

I found out that his wife's name was Christine, and from there eventually found that she was in her nineties, still alive and living not that far from us - she had remarried after Ernest had been killed and had gone on to have a family.

Eventually, we got in touch with her - as even at her age, she uses a computer, and we went to see her. What a lovely day that was - she told us that she had carried a photograph of Ernie (the one shown here) in her purse from the time they had first met in the early 1940s and she still kept it in there now. We found that very touching and it did bring a tear to our eye.

Aunty Chris told us that she remembered John and his brother, and especially his parents, who were always very kind to her and she was very sad that they had lost touch, but after her husband died, she moved away and of course, it wasn't as easy in those days to keep in touch.

When we met Aunty Chris, John was delighted when she gave him the hymn book that Ernie used. John says he doesn't remember his uncle because he was born in 1942 and by then, he had probably gone off to France and in those days, people didn't talk about the war and what happened, so receiving this hymnbook was very poignant.

Today, Armistice Day, we think of Uncle Ernie and all those who died that we might be free - we should never forget them!