Two great uncles
Two great uncles who I
never knew
Got killed whilst serving
in world war two
One died somewhere in
Italy
And the other in a ship
was lost at sea
My Grandad (their elder
brother) was told
When he volunteered that
he was too old
So he signed up for the
Home guard instead
And at night as bombers
flew overhead
He lay and waited for
morning to come
With his wife (my Nan)
and daughter (my Mum)
In the daytime he worked
in Stratford and Bow
Delivering coal and he
got to know
A man with connections
and in a back street
He paid a bit extra for
black market meat
Then he went home to his
daughter and wife
And that’s how he spent
the war years of his life
Now I wonder what he must
have felt.
How did he deal with the
hand he was dealt?
Striving to keep his
family fed
All the while knowing his
brothers were dead
If not for my Mum I’d
never have known
Of those two Great uncles
whose lives were blown
Away with
other young men in their prime
Who fought
for our lives in that terrible time
Long after the war my Grandad
died
I remember him being a
man of pride
A salt of the earth whose
daughter wife
And grandchildren seemed
the joy of his life
He lived with my Nan in a
two up two down
On a council estate in
Dagenham Town
The same house he’d lived
in during the war
And where mum was born a
few years before
About the young brothers
he said not a word
Like I said it was only
through mum that I heard
What’s related above is a
story she told
Forgetting their names
now she’s grown old
So here’s my tribute for
what it’s worth
To a man whose past gave
rise to my birth
A nod of remembrance to
what he went through
And the two Great uncles
who I never knew
