Dear all,
Dad has asked me to write a quick note to share that between the various blog sites he has clocked up 3 million views, which is pretty impressive!
Thank you all for your emails of support after our Christmas post and I will update you further when I can.
Catherine
15th January - 3 Million Views!!
A Christmas Update
Boxing Day 2011, I am visiting dad again and he has asked me to update you on his progress. For the past few months he has been taking the chemo pills every few weeks and has made some progress although he is mostly housebound. He has noticed some weakening recently, but the doctors have said they feel this may be because he's had "too much chemo." Time will tell whether he will get better or worse, but at least we've had Christmas together as a family.
Dad has a wheelchair if he does go out and is able to walk small distances with a walking stick, but he's fortunate to have my brother here to look after him as well as my sister and his girlfriend. He is grateful for all the kind comments people have made over the past few months.
Making History - Radio 4
We've had a request from a gentleman at the BBC to use some of Harry's letters in a radio 4 programme following up a listener’s search for information about her grandfather’s war service in Italy in 1918.
It will be aired on BBC radio 4 on Tuesday 23rd August at 3pm.
Hope you can tune in
Catherine
4th August - DIY chemo
Dad has asked me to remove posts relating to his illness - after his prior insistence that every step be documented, he has now decided it is too personal for him so I have taken down all the posts except for the first two.
As things stand, he is at home and is taken what he called DIY chemo (vomit in the comfort of your own home). We have everything crossed that this will help, but for now, there won't be any more updates unless I have something important to pass on.
Thank you again for your kindness and support
Catherine
Every day is a battle
Dad was released from hospital on Friday, on the condition that he has 24 hour care organised at home.
We have carers that come in every morning and every evening to get him out and put him to bed and a nurse to check up every day. He's incredibly stubborn and so is determined to come downstairs every day to the living room, but the toilet is upstairs so it means a rather scary ascent of the stairs. He's still dizzy and wobbly and incredibly weak.
Dad is of the opinion that his first dose of chemo hasn't made any difference, but I disagree - he seems a bit more stable and sometimes his speech is a lot better (it comes and goes), but I imagine sitting around all day drinking coffee from a sippy cup can't exactly feel like 'much better'.
He's back in hospital on Wednesday to see if he's any better and then he'll have chemo again a week after for another dose (I think).
He says I have to add "thank you for all the support and messages from all my readers - it has been a great comfort in a difficult time, as you can imagine"
An update
Sorry to hijack this blog, but after all of the lovely comments from readers I felt it was important to update you all on what was going on.
After some more inconclusive tests, the doctor down in Cornwall decided that it was better to start dad on chemotherapy ASAP, because he has been so weak they changed from their original plan of one type of chemo, a few weeks break then the other, to just giving him both types at once in order to get him on the road to recovery as soon as possible.
He started the chemo on Friday evening and I believe finished it yesterday or Monday. I spoke to him yesterday and although he complained of feeling no better, and that everything they gave him tasted funny, even the water, he sounded much more like his old self (he wouldn't believe me though!). After several weeks of struggling to understand him on the phone, he finally sounded much clearer again.
He's hoping to be out of hospital on Friday or Saturday, but it depends how his immune copes, and hopefully he'll be able to update you on his progress himself, but we'll have to wait and see.
Thank you again for all your kind words, it has meant a lot to all of us to know that so many people care.
Catherine
Harry Lamin 1921-1961
Written by Catherine, Bill's daughter:
After the war Harry went back to work at the lace factory. At this point Dad draws on his own memories of Harry. He describes remembering staying with him with his sister Anita and sharing a double bed, the smell of pipe smoke and playing with his hammer shot gun (a perfect toy for a 6 year old).
Anita recalls a Sunday afternoon where her grandfather woke up screaming with nightmares from the war. His mother claimed that Ethel had burnt all of Harry's letters, but fortunately it was only her own letters that she destroyed.
Dad's memories of his grandparents are rather vague since it was 40 years ago that his grandfather died, but he recalls walking to the gasworks for coke (for the fire) and lemonade from the little corner shop, which was a special treat that wasn't allowed at home. He says that in childhood every Sunday his grandparents would visit with fruit gums, pastilles and a bar of chocolate, items that had been rationed and so were still considered a big treat (Dad just asked whatever happened to Fry's 5 Boys Milk Chocolate?). He would walk to his grandparents house after school, as it was only a little bit further then going home.
Harry often frequented the horse racing, which his wife did not approve of, he went to Southall on the other side of Nottingham. Dad says that he doesn't recall if Harry ever particularly won, and as a child he is sure that any significant losses would have been kept from him.
One of the more interesting stories describes the move to Gordon Street from Mill Street. Harry was reluctant to move house, possibly because his home was one place where he felt safe after everything he had been through, so one day Ethel moved everything to his new home while he was at work. From Gordon Street, Dad recalls watching football out of the window, which is perhaps where his love of the game came from.
Even now, while struggling with his illness, Dad has said repeatedly that his grandad is a huge inspiration to him, while in hospital he said that one thing that kept him going was thinking about all the things Harry went through and yet remained strong.
I would like to finish with a quote from the book, made more poignant by the fact that whenever Dad has felt particularly unwell he has echoed his own grandfather's words:
"Harry retired at sixty-five in 1952, and lived until 1961, when he died peacefully at home. My mother, telling me of his death, reported that he said, 'I've had a good life'"
Apologies and Sad News
Dear all,
This is my first post on my father's blog. He has asked me to write to you all to update you with what's been going on for the last few months. As you have no doubt noticed, there has not been an update to the blog for a number of months; sadly this is because shortly after his father's death, Dad was diagnosed with a brain tumour. After a lot of trips to various hospitals he has been increasingly unwell and now struggles with the most simple things whilst remaining completely fine mentally so that he can't walk or talk some days, and he struggles to read and type, but he wants to be able to do everything and he can't. Obviously he is finding things very hard, but we remain optimistic about the future. In the last two weeks he has had a biopsy and although the results have come back as inconclusive, the samples have been sent to London for further examination. It is thought that he has a small tumour, but it is surround by lots of inflammed tissue which can be reduced by steriods, but that further treatment is required to get rid of the source of the problem; he is seeing a haemotologist on Monday to consider treatment options such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Unfortunately, during the biopsy there was a small amount of bleeding which has meant that he has lost all sense of balance and so is now struggling even more to be mobile.
Dad and I would both like to apologise for not updating the blog sooner in the year and we aim to work together to get as much written as we can both of Harry's journey and of Dad's own journey through this illness.
I thank you once again for taking an interest in our family's history,
Catherine
(Bill's middle child)
William (Bill) Lamin 1916-2010
Sadly, Bill, my father passed away yesterday afternoon, 30th December, aged 94. It wasn't completely unexpected, he has been very frail for quite some time.
Bill (Willie in the blog) was born 9 months before his father Harry was conscripted. He was one of main characters, frequently mentioned in Harry's letters. Click here for the start of Willie's story, in four instalments.
I am very sad that Bill was never really able to grasp how the blog worked. He certainly wasn't able to understand that the book was about his father.
Harry, from 1920
William Henry Bonser (Harry) Lamin 1920 onwards.
I have been dreading writing this. Possibly, because I don’t know enough about the man to make a decent job of it. Also, it has to mark the end of the amazing journey that the blog has led me through.
Well, here goes. (Click on the image to enlarge it)
Harry left the army in January 1920 (Note; he was, of course discharged from the Royal Munster Fusiliers - not the York & Lancaster Regiment) and was given a final payment of £61 2s 1d (£61.10) made up of almost £34 back pay and a £15”war gratuity"(an example of the military’s sense of humour, £5 a year for enduring unbelievable conditions), 4 weeks pay for leave (I was sure "furlough" was a U.S. term), ration allowance and a clothing allowance. From this £1 was deducted. Harry was allowed to keep his heavy army greatcoat for the journey home. If he handed it in at a railway station, he would get his £1 back. The £61 2s 1d was paid, by post, in three weekly instalments and was worth about £3,000 in today’s money. note; The paper that the Demobilization (surely, "Demobilisation" in England in 1920!) Account was printed on has disintegrated. I just did a jigsaw job on the scanner bed and then returned the pieces to the envelope. BLAs far as I can tell, once Harry got home in January 1920, he picked up where he left off and found employment in a local lace factory.
Even that is not known with certainty. I have heard that times for the family were “very difficult” in the 1920s. It was a difficult time for the country, there was much unemployment and many ex-servicemen found it difficult to find employment. The promised “fit country for heroes to live in" just didn’t materialise. There was no welfare state provision. Maybe Jack and Kate were able to help out. Ethel and Harry were, of course, looking after Kate’s daughter, Connie. No doubt Kate would have chipped in to help with that and, equally doubtless, Harry and Ethel would have been grateful for that help.
I'll continue Harry's story later.
Two related sites
I have been pleased to contribute to help others with similar material to get moving. Harry's blog and book has certainly stimulated several other similar websites particularly Dieter Finzen's "mirror image" German soldier's WW1 blog, Erich Rochlitzer's German WW 2 Blog and Sam Avery's WW1 "doughboy" blog. I am very proud to have initiated a new and exciting use for the internet. My one good, maybe great, idea.
This week two new publications been brought to my attention. Both are concerned with World War2 and, coincidentally, both concerned with life, not at the front, but back home in England during that war.
The first is a book and blog, "E.J. Rudsdale's Journals of wartime Colchester", edited by Cathy Pearson. E.J. referred to the futility of the slaughter in the war that ended 20 years earlier, on which to base his decision not to join up and fight. I can understand his viewpoint.
The second is May Hill's diary and poetry ;"The Casualties were Small" edited by Tom and Margaret Ambridge which was published as a book and now is being "blogged".
World War 1 from Above
A follower from the U.S. has informed me that the "World War 1 from Above" programme is available on YouTube and is well worth a look. In the supporting material, there is a very good account of the "Messines Ridge" battle that was part of Harry's war. The programme (it is English so I'm allowed the "correct" spelling) is split into four 15 minute sections and is of a good quality. Click on the links to view.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Insight into Harry's World - TV Programme
The BBC showed ""World War One from above" on Sunday. It's still available on-line but probably only in the U.K. (Note the consequent careful spelling of programme - with 2 "m"s and an "e") .
A French aviator filmed the Western front battlefields from a balloon, shortly after the war ended. That filming was linked to well researched background material, with a particularly good account of the Messines Ridge battle, which Harry took part in. (Chapter 4 of the book - June 1917 in the blog).
The programme suggested that the Messines mines were set off sequentially, working to the south - that the Germans in the southernmost trenches watched with increasing horror as a vision of Armageddon approached. All accounts I've read indicated that the mines were fired simultaneously at precisely 3 am. ( I don't see any significant military benefit in a sequential system - with only seconds between detonations.) Does anyone have any more information?
Update. I'm reading Nicholas Rankin's excellent book "Churchill's Wizards". In it he describes "a rolling sequence that lasted an appalling 28 seconds". I don't know if that was the intention or the result of imprecise timings. Access to the orders for the attack, at army level, may be able to answer that one.
I found the whole programme to be excellent. Particularly chilling were the views of the water filled shell holes across the Passchendaele battlefield. Not just a few, the whole battlefield completely covered with, what looked from the air like puddles, but which were actually small lakes that would easily drown a man laden with military equipment.
This week, the blog should pass another milestone with the three millionth pageload. There are still over a thousand visitors a day with a steady flow of positive and rewarding comments.
Ideal Christmas Gift
To order, click on the link to the left. You can buy an unsigned copy or the audio version from Amazon UK.
World War 1 Ends Officially in 2010
Astonishingly, the final event of The Great War has taken place, 92 years after the end of hostilities. With the final installment of the reparations to be paid by Germany to France, the book can, finally be closed.
Follow the link for further details.
First World War officially ends - Telegraph
Willie -Installment 4 (to date)
This is a tough, most difficult account to write. I’m going to start to work in the opposite direction and see if that works.Click on any image to enlarge.
Bill, my father, is currently 94 years old. He’s very frail and has great difficulty with his memory. He lived alone after
What happened after the Second World War? He successfully picked up his employment with the textile Company in his (and Harry’s) home town of
He was successful in his employment, moving up in the company to become their main salesman, selling bedding to department stores in the midlands and North of England. In the early sixties, he became an independent salesman, acting as an agent for several textile companies, earning a very good living.
He has always been a keen fly fisherman, making regular fishing trips to salmon rivers. In the sixties, he bought a share in a fishing syndicate owning the rights to a stretch of the river Ecclesbourne, a beautiful trout stream in Derbyshire. I have been fortunate to have taken over his share and now enjoy the fishing whenever I am able. Bill was also keen on rough shooting. For many years he was member of a syndicate that had the game shooting rights over an area of Nottinghamshire, in the vale of Belvoir. I once remember him saying to me that he loved walking over the countryside but he really didn’t enjoy the killing of game. He then sold his gun and that was that.
The fishing didn’t stop until he was really too unwell. Bill made regular visits to his beloved Ecclesbourne right up to 2006. He was a long-term member of the Rotary club and was made a Paul Harris Fellow for his efforts with that organisation..
I have an account written by Bill about himself. I’ll attach a scan. I believe it was written when he was asked to speak at the funeral of one of his fellow choir stalwarts. I’m not sure how it was used or even if that’s correct, but it’s a valuable insight into the man.
Transcript
W. Lamin- Married to
Member of St Mary’s choir for 71 years (still singing). Boy chorister, contemporary of Ernest Lough, soloist of “Hear my Prayer” and many other solos. Rejoined after voice changed and has always lived in Ilkeston
Sang alto then tenor, for many years tenor soloist.
Acting unpaid choirmaster for 8 years, 6 years with 4 volunteer organists.
Rotarian Chas Norman recruited him as unpaid trainer for Gladstone Youth Club, and he finished up as chairman of the club for a number of years. The club was one of the most successful in the area, both in games and voluntary service.
Hobby. Many years dedicated fly fisherman – mainly trout, and occasionally salmon. Compulsive gardener and likes experimenting with cuttings.
He has been a very private person. I suspect some of that is a legacy of his father’s ways. (Just as I, in turn, still have some legacy of Harry’s experiences. It is quite frightening.)
My father has always been an honourable man. I treasure his honesty and integrity, too rare in today’s world.
Willie - Installment 3
It may seem obvious but, of course, I know more about each succeeding generation. If there's too much on Willie, just stop reading. BL
I’ll carry on with Willie’s story. (I think he’s about to turn into Bill)
Click on any photograph to see a larger version.
As I mentioned in the previous post, he had met a young school teacher, Nancy, at the amateur dramatics club. I think the “tree” character was “Heathcliffe” from Wuthering Heights, but can’t check. Nancy was teaching at Chaucer Street primary school which was the same school that Bill (Willie) and, probably Connie had attended as children. The school still exists, but has moved from the old buildings Bill and Nancy knew to a much more modern building.
Bill and Nancy were certainly together by August 1938. I have a lovely letter written to Nancy by Bill. Nancy was home in the English Lake District for the summer holiday.
The romance was interrupted by the war. Bill enlisted in March 1940. In his army Pay book his occupation was recorded as “Buyer”. His place of birth and parents’ nationality were blotted out by the censor for obvious reasons. (I just can’t think what those reasons are at the moment.) He was in for the duration of the war (D of W in the pay book.) Has anyone any ideas what the "Approved Society" is? Or indeed what that space is for?
I’m sure that the platoon picture is Bill’s equivalent of Harry’s squad picture from Rugeley. The legend on the back is ‘6 Platoon Recruits “A” Coy, Normanton Bks, 12/4/40. just under a month after he enlisted. I believe he joined the Sherwood Foresters, Notts & Derbys Regiment. The cap badge of the platoon Sergeant seems to confirm that. Normanton Barracks are in Derby, quite close to the old Derby County Football Ground, oddly named the “Baseball Ground”. Bill is 5th from the right in the middle row- next to the sergeant. A Sherwood Foresters battalion was adjacent to Harry's battalion for much of his service.
In April 1941, Bill and Nancy married at Nancy’s home village, Greenodd in Cumbria. Bill’s army paybook records a fortnight’s leave a few weeks after my sister Anita was born in July 1943.I think we’ve been a lucky family as far as military service is concerned. Harry survived unscathed and my military career was too short to be much of a problem. Bill tells that tale of being on parade, ready to board lorries bound for Southampton and a ship to the far east, when he was told to fall-out and pick up a rail warrant to Aldershot to join the Army Physical Training Corps.
His comrades arrived in Singapore just before it fell to the Japanese. In February 1942. At best, Bill would have ended up a prisoner of war.
So Bill got through World War 2, gaining a wife and a daughter and without seeing combat.
The next instalment will take us up to the present.
"Buy the book", link problem - Apologies
I've just discovered that the link to buy a signed copy of the book for the U.K. was corrupt and wouldn't work. Apologies if you've tried to buy one and been frustrated. (I thought sales had gone a bit flat!)
For the time being, I'll throw in a free set of "Harry" postage stamps as some form of compensation. No need to do anything. Just order a signed copy and the stamps will be included at no extra cost.
Click on the link on the left.
Willie (3) nearly ready to post. Certainly by the weekend.
Willie - Instalment 2 (Work in progress)
I can only refer to the elements of Willie’s childhood that have survived in some form or other. My father rarely spoke about it.
Click on any photograph to enlarge it.
Click on any photograph to enlarge it.
Willie became a member of the choir at Ilkeston Parish Church
On the basis of his talents, he was offered a scholarship to one of the great Cathedral Choir Schools. His story is that his mother, Ethel, decided that such a course wasn’t “for the likes of them”, and the offer was declined.
He played football (soccer), he was a goalkeeper. That was a revelation to me as I’m passionate about the game – and yet never knew that he played. I just discovered the photograph and asked about it. Cricket was his main sport and I can remember him playing for local teams when he was in his forties.
Back to the singing. He tells the tale of how a well-to-do gentleman had left the request that Willie sing the beautiful “I know that my redeemer liveth” from Handel’s Messiah, at his funeral. At the time, Willie’s voice showed signs of breaking – a potential disaster. He was instructed by the choirmaster not to talk a word or to sing in the days leading up to the funeral. He even went to school armed with a letter of explanation. He made it, and received a treasured letter of thanks from the gentleman’s family.
He was into amateur dramatics, meeting there a young school teacher, Nancy. I suspect the photograph of Willie leaning against the tree was a publicity shot. I hope so.When he left school at 15, he was fortunate enough to find work in a local textiles company, run by an enterprising Dutch immigrant. He tells tales of collecting cheese from the Netherlands from the railway station and rolling it down the hill to the factory for the owner.
In 1940, Willie followed Harry into the army, initially as an infantry soldier, to take part in World War 2. (To be continued)
Willie - Instalment One
This is a tough one. For the last four years, I’ve never failed to upload any of Harry’s letters on time. I’ve managed to do enough research to put his experiences into a sensible context. Now, I’m finding it easy to put off writing the last two entries onto the blog. Maybe there’s an element of not wanting to end this wonderful journey.
Willie is still alive. It’s not simple to connect my father, aged 94, with the small boy who was so important to Harry. I’ll try. I’m sure that I’ll write and re-write but, clearly it has to be done.
William Lamin was born on March 23rd 1916. He was the second son of Ethel and Harry. Arthur, the first born, was born two years earlier and had died in infancy. I’m quite sure that Willie (I don’t even know what to call him “Willie”, “Dad or, as he’s been generally known for all my lifetime, “Bill”) knew nothing of Arthur’s existence. I stumbled across a christening card from Ilkeston Parish Church
Willie (lets stick with that for the moment ) must have been precious to the couple. It must have been desperately difficult for Harry to leave his 9 month old baby son when conscripted in late December 1916.
For three years, Willie only saw his father for one leave in September 1918. As far as I can work out, he was brought up by Ethel with the help of Harry’s sister Sarah Anne (Annie). Annie had a son who was old enough to join up and fight but, at this time, no husband. George, her son, had never lived with Annie – he was conscripted from Manchester
An important element in Willie’s life would be little Connie. She was six years older and suffered from cerebral palsy and so couldn’t walk. I don’t know how well she could talk, but Willie and Connie are reported as “good friends”. In 1918, Connie was sent away to boarding school in I can’t pretend to know more. He spent some of his time at the relatively “posh” Whitworth Road, Mill Street
The crucial first three years of Willie’s development were without his father.
Friday morning, January 9th 1920,Willie got his father back. I can imagine the scene as he walked in at 9am, wearing his khaki greatcoat, and greeted Ethel and young Willie. I can do nothing but weep at the image. Willie, aged 3 years 9 months would have to get used to this stranger. I’d guess he’d hide behind Ethel as this unfamiliar man walked into the house. You can make up the picture yourself. To help you, you can see the house on the BBC video. Click
I think that is enough for now. I’ll publish this first instalment and then I’ll just have to continue with the next phase of Willie's life.
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