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Re: WW1 Death Penny
Here in Oz we have a thing known as Legacy.
Each year there is a week where they sell small lapel flags to raise funds.
This group assist those who have lost family in conflict, but to be fair our gov, no matter which, looks after the war dead and seriously injured.
Have never heard an ex service person complain that they are not well cared for.
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Re: WW1 Death Penny
Lewis, Thanks for your message. His pay continued for the next 26 weeks following his death and then my Gran went on to her Widows and Dependents Benefit. Another document I have is the programme for the unveiling of the memorial of the War Memorial at Victoria Station, Manchester on Tuesday, the 14th. of February 1922. The tablet records all the names of the staff of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway who died in that conflict. There are 1465 names on that one plaque !! Was it Shakespeare who wrote of the Futility of War ?? Regards Peter in NZ.
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Re: WW1 Memorial Plaque
Full title:*Memorial Plaque
Also known as:*Death Plaque, Dead Mans Penny etc.
Construction:*Cast bronze disc, 121 millimetres in diameter.
Naming:*Raised block capitals, rank and regiment not shown (as all men/women made the same sacrifice and are equal in death).
Issued:*Production began in 1918 and plaques were still being issued in the later 1920's (perhaps even into the 1930's!).
Awarded to:*All ranks of men and women serving in (or under contract with) the British & Imperial (ie: Indian, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand etc) Forces, including those employed in hospitals or the Merchant Navy etc, whose death was attributable to the war. Just over 1.36 million Memorial Plaques were issued.*
K.
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Re: WW1 Memorial Plaque
Tensed Up.
Awaiting orders to go over the top,
Tensed up, thinking, will he be the next one to drop,
Mud and frost weighing down his kilt,
Cutting into his freezing skin
Lice would breed in tartan seams,
Pleats on barbed wire trapping him,
With his loaded Lee Enfield rifle,
Quick to load and quick to fire,
Corned beef and army biscuits
What more could a soldier desire?,
Rats, mustard gas and shrapnel,
Horses rotting in the trench,
Flooded latrines, eyeless comrades,
Limbs and mud and rain and stench,
Foot rot, shell shock, impetigo,
Frost and fear, the soldier's bed,
Only way out, to win a discharge,
Wounded, missing, mad or dead,
For the families left behind them,
Widows, orphans, and the unborn,
Comes the prize, the Dead Man's Penny,
For the thousands of troops,
Who were cut down like corn.
Fouro.