A Name on a Wall

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It's been a quiet day today, and probably rightly so. I rose later than usual, and after tea and toast for breakfast, turned on the coverage of the Remembrance Day Parade, and just thought about stuff. After the silence, and shopping in the village, I noted that there was a handful of freshly-laid wreaths at the small Bethesda War Memorial; rather fewer now than in years past, as the number of celebrants inevitably dwindles with time. But it goes on. And this afternoon, having watched Spielberg's 'The War Horse' for the first time ever, and having been reminded of the often pointless savagery of the First World War and of the powerlessness of the tiny cogs that enabled the war machine on its blind progress,  I recalled the name and fate of a great-uncle of mine.

Born in 1893 in Staffordshire to Walter & Annie Rudge, he's listed on our family tree as simply having been killed in France in 1914. No other details. So I decided to try and find him online, as it seemed an appropriate thing to do, given the day. I figured that the obvious place to look would be The Commonwealth War Graves Commission site, so I gave it a go, without, frankly, much hope of locating him. I'd no regiment, service number or location, and the name Tom Rudge can't exactly have been that uncommon back then.

He's listed on the family tree as Tom and not Thomas, so I used that in the search, along with what I assumed to be his obvious regiment, Staffordshire. The only record that came out, was indeed for a Tom Rudge, but of the Coldstream Guards. The age and dates of birth and death were spot on, but it was only when I came to his father's name and Tom's place of birth, I realised I'd found him, first try: Walter B. Rudge of Stafford. His mother's name wasn't given, I assume because she pre-deceased him in 1903. 

Tom's full record then is: Tom Rudge, Private, First Battalion, Coldstream Guards, service number 11313, killed in action on the 22nd of December, 1914, aged just 21. Whereabouts unknown, he is remembered at Le Touret Memorial, Pas De Calais, France. A name on a wall amongst those of 13,481 other young men with no known grave who had barely made it weeks into the War. I will visit and pay my respects one day...

Comments

  1. Anonymous13 November 2023 at 15:47

    I found my Grandfather James Stoner Petty Officer (who's ditty box looks down on me in my bedroom) but married to a woman that predated my grandmother! No sign of the three sons that she lost in WW1!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sideways13 November 2023 at 17:45

      Keep looking, mate: the information's out there...

      Delete

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