Lest We Forget

Remembrance Day is observed every year on 11 November, commemorating the anniversary of the armistice which marked the end of World War One.

This is a great time for communities across Britain to come together and remember the service and sacrifice, friendship, and collaboration of the men and women of Britain, the Commonwealth, and Allied nations who fought together. We remember the Armed Forces, and their families, the vital role played by the emergency services, and those that have lost their lives as a result of conflict or terrorism.

MY FAMILY'S STORY

From the end of the 19th century, my grandfather, Charles Whitley travelled regularly from Jersey on a local ship, captained by my great grandfather to make the most of the Atlantic Cod Trade. They sailed from Jersey to Italy to pick up salt and then on to a small colony of Jersey people in Gaspe, Quebec, Canada. There, cod was salted and then my grandfather sailed to South America to deliver the fish. They then sailed back to Jersey.

On one of those trips, he stayed in Canada eventually moving to Montreal and marrying my grandmother who was working ‘in service’ for an aristocratic family.

In November 1917, Granddad joined the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force to serve with the 9th Canadian Field Ambulance corps on the front line in Northern France. He was 35 and with two infant children; my aunts - Dorothy and Marjorie Whitley. He was paid C$45 a month which is worth ￡427 in today’s money – very little for serving on the front line during WW1.

Whilst serving in France my grandfather would take the wounded from the field of battle to the places where doctors and nurses could treat them behind the front line in a field hospital then on to a stationary hospital if seriously injured. Owing to the number of wounded, hospitals were set up in any available buildings, such as abandoned chateaux. Some of the troops would be patched up and sent back to the front line or if more seriously injured taken to a convalescence hospital based in the UK which was used to treat Canadian Commonwealth troops.

Granddad was injured twice on the battlefield but both times returned to the front line to support our allied troops. He demobilised in Toronto in July 1919 eventually moving back with his family to Jersey where my father, Reg Whitley was born in 1927. Grandad died in a road traffic accident on the island in 1937 leaving my grandmother a single mother to six children.

Granny Whitley, my dad, and his five siblings all lived through the occupation of Jersey during WW2. As soon as Jersey was liberated, Dad joined the RAF then the police force. I think he wanted to be ready to defend the island against any future invasions!

My dad now aged 94 told me that he remembers that his dad didn’t speak much which is now believed to be a result of the PTSD he suffered as a result of serving on the front line.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.