Something beautiful

Something Beautiful – The Photo Gallery

This week’s theme for The Photo Gallery is Something Beautiful, and I’ve chosen something a little bit different.  Something beautiful and very special to our family.

Something beautifulThis July will see that start of commemorations of the beginning of World War One.  Both mine and Daddy P’s grandfathers served in World War One, both were there from the beginning until the bitter end.  Both, miraculously survived.

This photograph symbolises something truly beautiful to us, actually the box itself is rather beautiful.  It’s a brass coloured tin box, one of 500,000 that were given out to the troops for Christmas in 1914.  This box was given to Daddy P’s grandfather.  I presume mine had one too, but it’s no longer with us.

The Christmas card from Princess Mary is rather poignant, with wishes for a Victorious New Year.  If only that had been true!

Our something beautiful, our 100-year-old tin box, survived the war and is in amazing condition.  It’s been inscribed with Monkey’s Great Granddad’s name and regiment, but other than that, it is in mint condition.  That’s something beautiful in itself considering the horrors that this little box must have witnessed.

I wondered how Great Granddad P felt at Christmas in 1914, a long way from home, I wonder whether he believed the war would be over soon.  I would imagine that his something beautiful would have been memories of home, thoughts of family and friends, of green, country fields, of peace.

You may think that this is a rather weird something beautiful.  But to me it’s a lasting memory of a generation of brave men who were led to their slaughter in their thousands. It’s a remembrance that two men saw it all, AND came home in one piece, went on to marry and have families, which meant that 100 years later my son would be here, a 4 year old boy, full of life and happiness.

I’m also linking this post to What’s the Story? this week.


 

27 thoughts on “Something Beautiful – The Photo Gallery

  1. Oh wow, that is amazing. It’s not weird at all – love how people have very different interpretations of what beauty is to them x

  2. Oh wow Mary, that’s absolutely incredible! A beautiful box that’s 100 years old, just amazing – it really is. Such a great story, thank you so much for sharing #whatsthestory

  3. That is a wonderful piece of family history. I often think of my great-uncle who died in WW1 and find it amazing to think that another great-uncle died days before H was born. So few survived the whole conflict didn’t they? Monkey’s ancestors were obviously very lucky.

  4. Pingback: PODcast | What's The Story? | 3rd February 2014

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