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Poppies being released from the top of Anderton Boat Lift


Jennifer McM

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In memory of Bargemen who served and died in WW1 and who are not commemorated on any village war memorial because of their itinerant lifestyle.

 

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The names of Britain’s wartime dead are etched on countless plaques and memorials across the towns and villages to which they would never return.

But one group of wartime heroes has long been forgotten, their names rarely carved in stone or cast in lead.

To this day the sacrifice of thousands of watermen who worked on Britain’s canals before serving on the front line has yet to be commemorated.

Since most of the watermen lived an itinerant lifestyle, their home the boat on which they worked, there was no fixed community to record their sacrifice at the end of the First World War.

Now, as a long overdue way of recognising the contribution of these men to Britain’s wartime effort, a special service of remembrance is to be held on Sunday, November 11, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1.

 

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/27/britains-forgotten-watermen-remembered-wartime-sacrifice/

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3 minutes ago, Athy said:

As they were always on the move, I wonder how they received their call-up papers - unless they volunteered, of course.

I wonder if they got them through their employers. 

Edited by Tumshie
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11 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Have you been drinking?

 

Who died doing their day job? Do tell.

Well to be fair some have, but it's rarer, than a front line soldier doing theirs I guess.

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Seriously, I'm not one to criticise C&RT, but I do think they could have covered this a lot better on their website, three small paragraphs I don't think cuts it.

 

If the Telegraph could do an interesting write-up, then why didn't C&RT grab the chance, think they missed a trick, or am I missing something?

 

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/events/2018-11-11-100000-poppy-petals-at-anderton-boat-lift

Edited by Jennifer McM
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We will be in the square here, joining in remembering all the dead from local regiments. The 338th infantry regiment suffered huge casualties in August 1914, losing just over half its men in 3 hours at the battle of Transloy. So many of the names on the memorial are the same as people we see in the street every day.

Well done to CRT for remembering the watermen of the 1914/18 war.

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I guess a lot of lives could have been spared if the stone age methods + incompetence /arrogance & general belief that some of the upper crust officers of the day had that they & they alone knew what was what ,proved by the catastrophic life loss that they didn't ,at least with modern military that has improved some what over the last 100 odd years  but then again warfare has totally changed  & the foot soldier is required in less numbers although they still get the shitty end of the stick,  to each & every one who lost their life defending future freedom Sir /Madam I salute & thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Edited by X Alan W
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35 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

With out wanting to sound critical I think every body was just trying to do the best they could; I can't imagine that any man during that time who had decisions to make to wasn't constantly terrified that he was making choices that could prove catastrophic. I some times wonder if what we look back at and see as arrogance was actually men living lives of abject terror and simply trying to hold it together the best way they knew how. I can only imagine but I think the realties of war could slap anyones ego into check pretty quick. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I'm sure a great many of the men thrust into positions of authority felt that they weren't actually the best person for the job but what else could they do - If for no other reason than I attended a private school and had an expensive education I was given a band of men to lead into battle I personally would feel such a fraud. And I don't think it would have mattered whether your decision making took place on the battlefield or back in Britain.

 

I rabbited on but it's not to criticise just offer different perspective.  

I appreciate that you’re only trying to offer a balanced perspective but it’s long been the case (and was certainly still so in the early part of the 20th century) that the landed classes looked down upon us lesser mortals who actually have to work for a living. Even today “Get orf my land!” Isn’t unheard of; and how did he get his land in the first place? Probably because some distant ancestor protected the King’s mistress and was granted a county as thanks.

 

The upper classes with their classical education are no better than everyone else, simply more fortunate by an accident of birth. However they certainly didn’t appreciate that fact during The Great War. 

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2 hours ago, Tumshie said:

With out wanting to sound critical I think every body was just trying to do the best they could; I can't imagine that any man during that time who had decisions to make to wasn't constantly terrified that he was making choices that could prove catastrophic. I some times wonder if what we look back at and see as arrogance was actually men living lives of abject terror and simply trying to hold it together the best way they knew how. I can only imagine but I think the realties of war could slap anyones ego into check pretty quick. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I'm sure a great many of the men thrust into positions of authority felt that they weren't actually the best person for the job but what else could they do - If for no other reason than I attended a private school and had an expensive education I was given a band of men to lead into battle I personally would feel such a fraud. And I don't think it would have mattered whether your decision making took place on the battlefield or back in Britain.

 

I rabbited on but it's not to criticise just offer different perspective.  

I appreciate you view/take on the above subject but if you study some of the reports on battles /outcomes of WW 1 some decisions taken by  officers  in both Army & Navy that were questioned as to the outcome /viability were rank pulled & carried on with with catastrophic results surely if they were in the crapping themselves syndrome they would have at least considered the other input not dismissed it out of hand & carried on regardless attitude of  that jumped up little snot is not telling me how to do any thing  A a teen I did beating for phesent shoots to earn  extra money I 'v'e experienced the class hierarchy first hand .In some cases waste of space Richard Cranium's with nothing  but handed down cash which they thought was the be all to end all would not accept advice from any one  even the shoot guys who wee real experts were treated like village idiots although 1 of them had more gumption than 6of the monied mob

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1 hour ago, X Alan W said:

I appreciate you view/take on the above subject but if you study some of the reports on battles /outcomes of WW 1 some decisions taken by  officers  in both Army & Navy that were questioned as to the outcome /viability were rank pulled & carried on with with catastrophic results surely if they were in the crapping themselves syndrome they would have at least considered the other input not dismissed it out of hand & carried on regardless attitude of  that jumped up little snot is not telling me how to do any thing  A a teen I did beating for phesent shoots to earn  extra money I 'v'e experienced the class hierarchy first hand .In some cases waste of space Richard Cranium's with nothing  but handed down cash which they thought was the be all to end all would not accept advice from any one  even the shoot guys who wee real experts were treated like village idiots although 1 of them had more gumption than 6of the monied mob

 

What you think or believe is entirely your prerogative and as I have said I don’t want to get into a debate about the difference in class or who did what well and who didn’t - it just feels disrespectful to me.

 

However I am completely confused by your reference to going beating as a child, and why you seem to believe that that gives you some extraordinary insight that I might not have - because it really doesn’t.

 

 

I won’t be replying to any more posts not necessarily because I don’t want to discuss this but because it feels disrespectful to those who fought for our country because whether 'we' like them or not they still fought and in all too many cases gave their lives and I will not belittle that.

 

 

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To answer Tumshie's post which stated she would not be replying as it was dis respectful to the war dead  & was confused that because i was engaged as a game bird beater it gave me more insight into the gentry. I in  no way intended to not show respect (see earlier post) my beef was the incompetence/arrogance of some officers taking decisions that cost many foot solders their lives ( Written up in War records which I have read ) & the way we as beaters were treated by the upper class on game shoots ,also which I have not mentioned the way working boaters were treated, in my working days, by sections of land dwellers & shop keepers It  was assumed without finding out ,that working boaters were illiterate just to add when I took up the occupation I was up to city & guilds in mechanical engineering & my late wife was a barrister so we wer both OK on the R&R front, although we were always referred to as them off the water & in some cases treated as though we were not there & talked about not to. Came as a bit of a shock to some folk to find we had better education than they did & were always  pleased to help out any boater family with reading/writing matters As an aside I did military service & spent some months in Korea  so I have expieranced war & officers first hand & like all things in life there are good & bad only problem in that line of work a bad "un" with a wrong decision can cost you your life.

Edited by X Alan W
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