1 July 1916. The #Somme. 104 years ago, my great grandfather wrote his last letter to his wife and children.

RIP Bill Pedder

I usually tweet this with a hashtag taken from Bill’s sign off #KissMyBabiesForMe

Sub-thread: Bill Pedder’s military career.

1. Born in 1879, the son of of a Marylebone butcher, Bill enlisted in the Dorsetshire Regiment in London in 1896. The regiment was posted to India at that time, but there is no record of Bill having been there.

2. Regimental records show Bill served initially in Hampshire, which became the family home, in Surrey, then in Nothern Ireland.

This 1912 picture of the regiment’s sergeants features Bill second from left of the second row.

A few years before she passed, I took my mother to see her grandfather Bill’s grave in #BlightyValley, in the theatre where he served and fell. It’s a tranquil woodland cemetery, typical of those well looked after by @CWGC

Sadly, Bill’s military records were destroyed in WW2, but thanks to research last summer by @TheKnotUnites, I have reconstructed much of his #GreatWar experience. Thanks also for input from @bphillpotts. I’ll tweet more this weekend.

#ArmedForcesDay

Bill was a career soldier. Not one of the raw recruits so often highlighted. He was two years on the Western Front before the Somme. He was a non-commissioned officer. He knew the score.

I knew his widow, Selina, my great grandmother, who lived until the 1970s.

Please RT, RT with comment, copy to other platforms, and share with the widest audience possible.

#KissMyBabiesForMe