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Lawrence Joseph Abell

My grandfather was born on the 28th November 1896 at the Cross Keys Public House in Turnditch where his father was the landlord.

Pte 4309 Lawrence Joseph Abell, enlisted in the 1/5thÌý Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby Regiment) on the 12th of April 1915.

He was to have joined up with his best friend, but the friend had an appointment at the dentist, so my grandfather joined alone.

He landed in France on the 9th October 1915, and we know he was in the trenches in France during the winter of 1915/16 serving in No 14 Platoon, from a letter dated the 11th November 1915.

It describes life in the trenches, with an amusing if not worrying incident where he describes putting his head above the parapet and being shot at by a German sniper.

He tells in his letter that the German did not get another chance ‘because I didn’t look again’.

He was wounded on the first day of the Somme offensive (1st July 1916) during the attack on Gommecourt.

He received a bullet wound to the shoulder, which shattered the socket, and a shrapnel wound to the chest.

He spent a considerable time convalescing at a hospital in Bethnal Green, London following this incidence, and the wound was so serious that he did not return to active service. He was subsequently discharged from the army on the 6th December 1916.

During the rest of his life he could not lift his arm above his shoulder, although he went on to work throughout his life as a polisher at Rolls-Royce.

He was a member of the Darley Abbey British Legion and the Peter Pan Club in the village, attending St Matthews Church for many years before his death in September 1974.

Lyndon Malley