'Good night darling – God bless you – Heaps of love, Mother”' by Jerry Porter
07 Feb
We often hear of the men who fought and died in WW1, but it’s less common to focus on their loved ones. This talk tells the story of a mother (the speaker’s great grandmother) who lost a son. Based on a wealth of primary source letters, photos and artefacts passed down in the family, it illustrates her life on the home front, the son’s preparations for deployment overseas, his brief service in the front line and his mother’s perhaps surprising reaction to the news that he has been killed in action. It also covers her own experience of coming under Zeppelin attack, and her two visits to France in the early 1920s to visit her son’s grave. An intensely personal account, it nevertheless gives universal insights into war, family and loss.
Jerry Porter’s interest in WW1 was sparked as a child by listening to his grandfather's experiences as a very young gunner in France, and later by frequent visits to the battlefields of Picardy and the Somme with his father.
After a career in UK intelligence and security, with emphasis on support to military operations, Jerry now has time to devote to research and analysis on the four members of his family who served in WW1, three who survived and one KIA in 1918.
Great Stukeley Village Hall, Ermine Street, Great Stukeley, Huntingdon, PE28 4AQ
07 Feb 2024 19:30