No Thankful Village

[Neil Mackenzie]

Chris has collated extracts from personal accounts, letters, newspapers, war diaries and other sources to give a flavour of the Great War experience of men and women from Midsomer Norton and surrounding Somerset villages. A quarter of the 'Thanful Villages' in the UK were in Somerset but the villages covered by Chris' book are not amongst them - hence the title of the book.

Whilst, not surprisingly, the majority of the men served in the Somerset Light Infantry, the second most common regiment from them to serve in was the Coldstream Guards.

The stories include a VC winner (Lance Sergt Oliver Brooks a Midsomer Norton man), an NCO being shot by his own men, mixing with Belgian refugees, the experience of POWs in Germany etc etc.

An interesting and very readable book and certainly one I would recommend.

Neil

[Coldstreamer]

any chance of the names of the Coldstreamers ? How do I find out more about the book ?

and I like to think of it as a popular choice rather than common

[Neil Mackenzie]

Coldstreamer.

The ISBN of the book is 0-947660-04-6

Some of the Coldstreamers quoted or mentioned include:-

L/Cpl Oliver Brooks VC - 3rd Bn

John Campbell VC - 3rd Bn

Pte Alfred Dowling - 1st Bn

L/Sgt Charles James Fry - 3rd Bn

Death of Pte William Gosling - 3rd Bn

Death of Pte George Randall - 1st Bn

Death of Pte George Slater - 3rd Bn

Pte Sammy Taylor - 3rd Bn

Sgt Woodland - 3rd Bn

Chris was helped on the book by Major Sir Torquhil Matheson whose father seems to have been OC 3rd Bn.

Neil

[Coldstreamer]

Thanks Neil