This oneI did write.

Autobiography of a World War One Soldier – Part One

My name is Connor Llewelyn. I am nineteen years old. I have just joined the army. My fellow recruits are convinced I should write down my story. I have yet to see the point, but I will humor them.

I was born in Merthyr Tydfil, Waleson March Twenty-First 1895. I have lived there my entire life. I have never left, never traveled. My family consists of my mother, father, brother and sister. My brother, Garret, is seventeen. My sister, Bridget, is fifteen. My grandmum lives next door. My uncle used to live down the road, until he took a job on the Titanic. We received the telegraph on the Twenty-Seventh of April. He had presumably been dead twelve days. My grandmum broke down. Adding insult to injury, we didn’t even have a body to bury. It had been two years and we are just beginning to recover.

My life in Merthyr Tydfil has been nothing but ordinary. I attended the local school until age twelve. Then I left and went to work in the mines alongside my father. The conditions in the mines were, or rather are horrible. One spends entirely too much time coughing from the coal dust. The dust and dirt as go everywhere. Ears, eyes, nose and mouth. It is just awful. We had tried to improve the conditions by striking, but all that ever happened was everyone had to go some weeks without a paycheck.

While my father, Garret and I work in the mines, my mum, my grandma and Bridget work in the shop. They share a shop with the chemist. That is how I met his daughter, Mary. She is my girlfriend and after the war I hope she will be my wife. Our favorite thing to do is too take long romantic walks on the beach. She works as a seamstress, along with helping her father. She is an only child and her mother died giving birth to a stillborn baby boy. My mum has tried to be a kind of surrogate mother to Mary ever since.

Mary is one of the main reasons for my joining of the army. I was a miner and I knew Mary hated dirt with a passion. I also knew that if I was to provide for her I needed a steady wage. As I was walking along, trying to think of a solution, I almost ran into an army recruitment poster. Then I understood. I needed not a steady wage, but a steady pension! (That was a new idea, where you got paid for working after one retires. Several of my friends had already joined up, but I had not seen a need to. The walk to my Post Office was long and exhilarating. Every poster I saw just confirmed my decision. I proudly signed my name and walked to Mary’s house to inform her of my decision. Her reaction was one of mixed sadness and joy. She said she felt honored that I would do so much just to appease her. Nonetheless, she was worried that I might not come back. I told her not to worry. Of course I would come back. She smiled and let me take dancing, but all throughout the long night I kept catching her watching me with a glimmer of sadness in her eyes. That same look was reflected in Grandmum’s, Mum’s and Bridget’s eyes at the dinner that was my favorite foods, fish and chips. My father and Garret were both ecstatic. I told them I would write every week. That seemed to pacify the females. My father said not to bother, that he was sure I would be too busy for such nonsense.

The hardest part about leaving was all the people I left behind. Mary, my family, my dog and my friends all saw me off. I fervently hoped I would see them all again. As I left I silently prayed that none would die in my absence. And that neither would I.

Some of the posters I saw on my walk to the post office.

Some of the dogs our unit worked with.

The dog our unit adopted.