Bringing Uncle Albert Home: A Soldier's Tale

‘Bringing Uncle Albert Home’ is my first book arising from a life-long interest in the Great War and of the lives of ordinary men and women who were caught up in it. Almost all of us have long-forgotten ‘Uncle Alberts’ somewhere on our family trees, young men who died in their late teens and early twenties, sometime between the fateful years of 1914-18. Most soldiers’ accounts of the Great War were written by fortunate survivors, tidied up from ‘illegally’ kept diaries hastily scribbled in the trenches when circumstances permitted. For the majority who fought and fell, there were no diaries and few letters survive. Yet, these silent soldiers can still tell us their stories

Albert Turley is one such soldier. I reconstructed his story because having left nothing behind but his name on a war memorial in a peaceful English village and the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing on the Somme, I considered this would represent the most unpromising starting point for such research. I wanted to demonstrate to others, who believed such a task would be impossible, that even for soldiers such as Albert, much could still be found amongst existing records.

In fact, I surprised even myself just how much I was able to piece together of his life. I hope now my efforts will encourage others, with the sources I have provided, to find out more about their own relatives who served in the Great War. Some may even make their own pilgrimage to the battlefields of the First World War and the silent, lonely farm tracks of the Somme will ring once more with the sound of English voices.

The story also tells of the effect that the Great War can still have on people, like the author, born many years after its conclusion. I will not give the plot or the ending away but it is not a sad book. I asked a few friends to read the original manuscript when I had completed it. Their reaction was universal; none had finished it with a dry eye.

Finally, I hope my book will be seen as my own personal tribute to the soldiers like Albert who still lie ‘somewhere in France’. Through it, I hope readers will ensure that their sacrifice in a war fought so long ago, will never be forgotten.
David P.Whithorn

DAVID P. WHITHORN is an amateur historian and genealogist with a special interest in the First World War. He lives in Hampshire.