Hanging on the walls in the hallway of The  Gables are a collection of old black and white family photographs.  This is my paternal grandfather, Grandpa Sam, who came to England from Odessa as a babe in arms.  In this photograph he was aged about 31 and my dad was 2.

Sam volunteered to fight in the First World War and was probably 18 at The Battle of The Somme.  He talked sometimes about sleeping in the trenches and the horror of rats running over him.  My brother may have asked him more about his army life but, as we now know, the returning soldiers were not encouraged to talk about their experiences and they buried them deep within themselves in order to protect their families from the horror that they had seen and suffered.

My maternal grandfather, Grandpa Charles volunteered at the very end of the war when he was just 17 and England was desperate for more soldiers.  Fortunately for my sweet and sensitive grandfather he was not sent overseas as the war came to an end and he did not have to fire a shot.