War Memorabilia

A few years ago Mum had hers and my Grandfather's war medals framed.  After her death my brother sent these to me.  Mum had previously, many years ago, given me my father's medals for my eldest son to keep and I was going to pass these on to him too.  I decided I would like to hang them on my wall instead and he can have them after I have gone.  They were rather difficult to photograph because of the reflection in the glass but they are so nicely framed that I didn't want to take them out.  

My grandfather, William H Tirrell, Was a sapper in the  Royal Engineers and was stationed in France during World War 1.

Mum was in the ATS and a corporal in World War 11. 

Below is a close up of granddad's medals which is a bit clearer.

At Christmas in 1914 all serving soldiers were sent a Christmas gift bought with money from a fund set up Princess Mary, 17 year old daughter of  King George and Queen Mary.  This was a brass cigarette box and the one below belonged to my grandfather.

More about Thomas Tirrell

I was recently contacted by Tara Quin who is the granddaughter of Thomas Tirrell.  She found me through this blog.   She tell me that Tommy (known as Jack) had 2 daughters called Janet and Barbara.  Tara is Barbara's daughter.

Apparently Tommy worked as  a military adviser to the Jordanian army after the war and when he retired he moved to near Rhyl in north Wales.  He was a jockey and raced for the army.  Tara kindly sent me some more photos of  her grandfather.  This one taken in Hamburg.  He loved horses and ran a horse society which had a big annual show.  He also liked to shoot and was a keen fishermen.

Tommy lived until 1994 and his wife Beryl lived into the new Millennium.  

This is another photo of Tommy and his wife Brenda on their wedding day in 1939 in Kent.

Tara also sent me Tommy's medal citations but as they are PDF files I cannot post them easily here but have scanned this section of one of them. He was a very brave and well thought of soldier and according to Tara he was a fabulous grandfather.