Joe and Sarah ......... Mr and Mrs Vernon Smith

 

Like so many men, Joe volunteered early in the war and enlisted in the King’s Liverpool Regiment in January 1915. Joe and Sarah were not married at this time and I have several photos of Joe billeted in Blackpool and doing drill and training exercises. He seems to have been posted to several parts of the country – evidenced by the multitude of postcards he sent! He continued to send dozens of cards throughout his time in England, France and then returning home, seriously injured.

 Joe is seated left, 2nd row. Blackpool 1915

A card sent from Joe to Sarah before they were married

 

Joe married Sarah on 16th July 1915. You will see from the postcard (below) that he was sent to a camp in the south 5 days after the wedding! And, typically for those times, with no idea when (or if) they would meet again, he exhorts his bride of five days to "Cheer up"!

What a generation they were. 

 

This bible was sent to Sarah on the day that Joe embarked for France 18th September 1916  - "hoping for a speedy and safe return"     Joe was awarded a Military Medal for his bravery under fire in  Sepember 1917. He returned to England in that month, seriously injured in the campaign in which he was awarded the medal. He spent 6 months in hospital, remained in the army but did not return overseas again. I will write about this in another blog - we have his medals, the telegram that Sarah received and (yet more!)  photos.

While Joe was away, Sarah continued to live at her family home with her father and younger sisters, the youngest of whom (Catherine) Grace was only 6 at the start of the War (she lived to be 112!). Grace spoke on national TV in 2018 at the commemorations of the end of the War - she spoke movingly of how her sister (Sarah) used to queue for food for the family and also the day that their father received the telegram of her brother, Tom's, death.  When the Armistice was signed, Grace remembers Sarah taking her to the Pier Head in Liverpool to celebrate- With her memories, Grace was a wonderful link back so far into the past. I will feature her later in the blog. She saw so many changes! Sarah was such a loving and dutiful sister who had seen much tragedy with the loss of her 3 siblings and mother before the age of 17, and who took over her mother's role at that young age.

Sarah and her sister Lilian worked in a shop at one time(date unknown)

This is Sarah's sister, Lilian, who appears to have had a nursing role in the Great War

 

In my next blog I will (try!) to pick a "few postcards"  from Sarah's album, to illustrate her life just before the Great War and during Joe's time abroad, his injuries and return to England. There are 200 postcards to choose from!