Granddad 1930

 

My Granddad went to the First World War with the East Yorkshire regiment, he lied about his age and got signed up early in the war, four years in those trenches destroyed him as the good humoured kind young man he’d been…..

 

 

Granddad

Grand lad

Blanket row

to

East Yorkshire

Regiment

Battle garland

“Oppy wood”

18 yrs old

Covered in mud

Killing and dying

Mired in blood

Lived to

Be broken

Lived to be token

Of the man who

Left grandma’s house.

 

Became fist fighter

Became bare knuckle

Fighter

Champion

Drunkard

Champion of 

Old Hull

With his 

naked fists

Every Sunday

After church

Before the pub

 

Investigated for

Murder

With a bayonet

Beat grandma

After every session

To teach her

A lesson

Only he knew

He died young

Head damaged

Body ravaged

And grandma

 

With a legacy 

Of seven mouths

And knees bent 

To parish

Said….

 

“I’ll never have 

Another man

Even if he has

Diamonds coming out

Of his arse”!