Someone with my sons name who lived in my house died in WWI

[BathFullOfEels]

Well not my actual house yet, but the one we’re moving to next month. Someone on my Facebook feed had linked to a website called astreetnearyou.org . It lists all the people from your postcode and nearby who died in WWI, their names, ages and some of them have pictures too.

It’s not that unusual as my ds has a bit of a grandad name our my surname is a very common English one. He was only 19 and died in 1917, his brother at the same address died in 1919 (I guess Spanish flu or something, although maybe war related?). There’s also so many surnames in there that I recognise from the local area.

I think the number of people who died in WWI is so huge it’s almost impossible (for me anyway) to grasp. But looking at the lists of addresses, often with 2 or more deaths per home seems so much more real and horrific. I just can’t comprehend what towns would have been like in the years that followed. Not just in terms of there being so few men but the mothers, wives, sisters who were left to carry on. Those poor, poor boys.

Sorry, I know armistice day is over but I just found it really shocking and upsetting.

The losses, and the impact on families and workplaces and communities, is unimaginable, isn't it?
That must have been quite a shock for you, to see someone with the same name as your son.

It's absolutely heartbreaking. Some mothers lost all of their sons. Doesn't bear thinking about.
It must have been very moving for you to read about that young man. His name will never be forgotten.

It's horrific, unimaginable. How old is your DS? As a PP said, his name will never be forgotten by you as well as his family now, would it be something that your DS would be interested in looking into, maybe incorporate into a school project if he's of that age? It's an unusual way to teach the younger generations the lessons about the past I suppose, and very touching.

We only have about 18houses on our street, and half the house has a fatality. We discovered through research that our house, the son returned home but was severely wounded but seems to have died then in older age, but never left the family home.

Very sad and the loss of life too large to comprehend. It's why we should never forget the cost of war.

B sad

V - sorry

I had no idea such a site existed, I just went to have a look and the site is "experiencing high demand"
But its now working, and is absolutely fascinating and hugely sad at the same time.
It must have been hard to read though OP, all those mothers whose boys never came home :(

Aww, I didn't know this site existed! There's a listing for my cottage and the one next door, both in the same regiment. I'm off to google some more - thanks for highlighting it!

I work in an old building that houses a memorial hall and there's a cenotaph out the front.
I walk through the hall to get to my office and I try to look at a different name in the marble on the walls on every journey. So many names.
Thanks for sharing this site OP.

WOW just Wow. Thanks OP for this thread. It's really upset me.
I knew of a young 19yr old lad that died, who lived in the house in 1915 that my daughter owns before discovering your find. He's not on the register yet. I discovered him via flicker last year.
This just takes shock to a whole new level. When you enter your address & discover the visible display of all those young men/boys who didn't return.
I entered my paternal Gp's address in Edinburgh. I discovered that 2 lads aged 16 & 19, a few streets away from Gp's didn't come home. They lived in the same tenement close/stair. Neighbours. Both boys lost within 3mnths of each other in 1915.

Thanks for this thread.

Such a fascinating site, thank you!
Good luck with your move!

Very sad and moving.
Must be a shock to see your sons name like that.

I’ve just looked at the site and one off the addresses closest to me list a son on the Lusitania.

I was in church for armistice day. The vicar did a roll call I the fallen. There must have been at least 50 names, could’ve been more, including potentially 5 sets of brothers. I would estimate that the church holds 250-300. It just seems like an enormous percentage.

I’ve have 2 boys myself and I don’t think I could bear the loss. It would destroy me.

That site is very poignant.

It’s harder to meaningfully remember millions but when you think of individuals (and their poor parents) you get some sense of it.

One of my great-great aunts lost her son who was MIA. Until she died, she always cooked enough food for him and set his place at the table in case he ever came home. She refused to believe he’d been killed.

I think the number of people who died in WWI is so huge it’s almost impossible (for me anyway) to grasp.

Just to point this out (calculated means):

WWI - 13 000 000

WWII - 69 069 811 !!! 3% of the 1940 world population

I was watching a programme this week which is like salvage hunters for war memorabilia. They were on the ww1 battlefields looking at fella guns and such like. The presenter said that if you looked at the age range 19-22, 1/3 of the men in the uk were killed. That’s just an enormous, incomprehensible figure.

@LuckyDiamond. That's very sad.. So personal to your family.

Field no fella! Damned autocorrect.

OMG, my grandpa's next door neighbour in Cape Town was killed.

Grandpa was just too young for WWI; volunteered in WWII. I've been trying to understand the effect of WWI on the family through their cousins and uncles, many of whom served and some of whom died.

But next door. In the Cape.

I don't know why that's a shock, it's not like I didn't know about the African troops. But it brings it home – again.

I just looked up the flats I used to live in, they used to be in blocks of six.

One of the neighbouring blocks -4 out of the 6 flats had a death, and one had two deaths in the same flat.

So desperately sad, what a lot of broken hearts. It just makes it so much clearer when you can see that those poor men actually lived close to you.

Very interesting website, thank you for drawing my attention to it.

lucky that’s so heartbreaking about your aunt.

Ds is only two so he wouldn’t have a clue. My older ds is 6 and we had a chat about it this morning. Where we live at the moment is 30’s housing estate so nothing really of note. We’re moving to the other side of town though where it’s mostly Victorian terraces and there’s only 3 houses out of the 28 in the street that didn’t have a death. I don’t know if larger families/ more people living per house must make that figure look even more shocking? I guess it depends where they were all deployed, did people from the same town tend to get put in the same regiments and areas does anyone know?

Sorry, I’m woefully ignorant about stuff like this. I’m going to take it as a sign and try to learn more about local history.

I think 25 out of 28 houses with a death, rather than just someone who served, is incredibly high.

That sounds like a Pals Battalion to me: they joined up together on the promise of being put in the same unit. So when a unit was wiped out in an attack, the effect on their home area was devastating. I'll dig out something about the Accrington Pals, to whom this happened.

IIUC the British Army don't put families and local groups in the same unit any more, after learning the hard way.

Remembering the Accrington Pals at the Battle of the Somme
www.lancashirelife.co.uk/people/local-people/remembering-the-accrington-pals-at-the-battle-of-the-somme-1-4596021

Accrington Pals en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accrington_Pals

Accrington Pals website www.pals.org.uk/pals_e.htm

There is a most gut-wrenching account in some recent documentary of the women of one street feeling the usual guilty relief as the telegram boy – always watched with heart-stopping dread – turned aside and went to some other door but theirs.

But on this day he came from that door, and turned towards another. And then another. And then another...

I remember one particular remembrance day when I was about 20, I suddenly found myself thinking of all the male friends I had and realising that in the war they would all have been serving and most wouldn't have returned. It really brought it home to me.