I grew up knowing that my Dads brother, my Uncle Joe, had died during the war in France. As I got older we remembered every year and I heard about the lovely kind man he had been.
The family had been sent a photograph of his grave with a simple cross following the end of the war but the War Commission eventually replaced the cross with their signature head stones. His bears the Navy anchor.
Joe had been picked to play for Glasgow Rangers football team just before ‘call up’. He loved sports and was a great swimmer too.
However he felt he had to go and fight for freedom for his family. He was a Christian and although he hated fighting he felt it was his duty to go.
Joe trained in the Navy and was sent to Canada to learn how to use some big guns. He volunteered for a mission to ram the harbour at St. Nazaire. German u boats were being built there and coming out into the North Sea to fire at British ships.
The HMS Campeltown set off in February 1942 and achieved its aim of ramming the harbour. Unfortunately the Germans were able to fire at the men and many were shot in the water. My uncle actually saved two people before he disappeared. My father met one of them after the war and he praised Joe for his unselfish actions.
The body was not found for quite a while. His parents receiving a letter on his 21st birthday telling them he was presumed dead!! Eventually he was found on a small island further down the coast of Northern France. He is the only British servicemen buried there amongst Canadians and Australians. Row 3 Grave 1. L’Epine Communal Cemetery. 
His family never got to visit but in 2005 I went on holiday to France and searched for the graveyard. There is now a causeway to the small island and residents we asked knew about the British sailor buried there. I found the grave and laid flowers, taking photos for my mother which she treasured.
I never knew Joe but the family will continue to remember him for his bravery. Without his sacrifice and those of the others who fight for our freedom we would not be here today.
Joseph Miller.
Able Seaman. R.N.V.R.
H.M.S. Campbeltown
Died 28.03.1942 aged 20 years.
Son of Joseph and Helen Miller. Glasgow.
Buried in L’Epine Communal Cemetery. France.
Karen
A memorable journey by Jane and Phil Coates
I never had the opportunity to meet my grandfather, Herbert Castle, nor did my mother, as she was born a matter of days after he was killed in action in the First World War. However, last year, Phil and I had the opportunity to go to Ypres, Belgium, to visit the Menin Gate and then to find my grandfather’s war grave and to place a bouquet of poppies there, which was a very moving and valuable experience.
Herbert Castle, born in 1894, had come from a coal mining family and background, in the Wath on Dearne area of South Yorkshire. He joined the Army as a Private in the 5th Yorkshire and Lancaster Regiment. (Private 2353) enlisting at Wombwell, Barnsley. Herbert Castle was in the Artillery Unit and was killed in action at Ypres. on Saturday 14th August 1915. It is reported that he died in the trenches and had been suffocated by gas and land fall.
The notification of his death to my grandmother from The Territorial Force Record Office was dated 25th August 1915 just a matter of eleven days before his daughter was born on the 5th September 1915. Alice would have faced those last days of her pregnancy alone and in mourning for a young husband. Her daughter and my mother, Margaret Iris Herbert Castle, was born 05.09.1915, 4 weeks after Herbert died. Her father’s name Herbert was included in her Christian names.
Herbert Castle was buried at Talana Farm War Cemetery, Boesinghe ( now Boezinge) Ypres, Belgium and we were able to locate his grave and to place our poppies there.
My grandmother had also just had to grieve for the loss of her brother Clifford Boocock (1895-1914). Corporal Clifford Boocock (2413) of the Yorks and Lancs Regiment, died in action in Northern France on 30.12.1914 in the very early stages of the war. He is buried in Bailleul Communal Cemetery (Nord) G7 France-near the border with Belgium and only 14.5 km from Ypres, where Alice’s husband was killed. Phil and I were also able to travel across the border from Belgium into France and to find the war grave for Clifford and also to place poppies there. 
I had kept a promise to myself that I would one day travel to Ypres and to France to visit the war graves there and to find the personal graves of these two important family members. The memorials and war cemeteries are beautifully maintained and peaceful places. They carry so many people’s memories of their loved ones.
Jane and Phil