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Low life

'My boy was my all': letters from a bereaved mother to a Somme widow

It helps to have a face to think of on Remembrance Sunday. Herbert Clarke's photograph is hanging in my hall

1 November 2014

9:00 AM

1 November 2014

9:00 AM

My maternal grandmother (née Clarke) had six brothers, all keen poker players. All six volunteered to fight in the Great War, and only one, Sergeant Herbert Clarke, of B Company, 10th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, failed to return to civilian life afterwards. He was blown up by a shell during the second week of the Battle of the Somme.

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