A salute to my Grandfather

This being Memorial Day here in the States, I wanted to use this forum to pay my respects to my Grandfather for the sacrifice he made for King and Country. I wasn't sure what Forum that this belonged in, so I put it here.

__________________________________________

William "Bill" Arthur Westhead was born February 28, 1899 in Liverpool, England.

He enlisted in the King's Liverpool Regiment on June 1 1915 at the age of 16. (He used the name of Claude, a deceased older brother since he was underage.)

He was later transferred to the Lancashire Fusiliers in February 1916 when he was posted to Egypt as a replacement to the Fusilier Regiments who took heavy casualties in the Gallipoli Campaign.

On February 28, 1917 he was posted to France, where, on September 15, 1917 he was wounded in the arm.

He returned to France on March 24, 1918. On May 27, 1918 he was transferred to the 2nd Bn. Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment ("Notts and Derby", or "Sherwood Foresters".) This was as a replacement for heavy (Reportedly 80%) casualties in that Regiment during the German offensive of March, 1918.

In 1918, he was promoted to Sergeant.

On October 8, 1918, thirty four days before the Armistice, he received another gunshot wound, this time in the left leg. Within a few days, gas gangrene set in, and on October 2 the leg was amputated...

He was nineteen years old.

He was discharged on July 18, 1919, not long after turning 20 years old.
__________________________________________

I only got to meet my mother's father twice in my life.

Once when my mother took me back home with her. I was 7 years old, and remember the smiling man with the funny wooden leg. He was a man of nearly infinite patience with a chatty young man who bounced off the walls of his normally quiet home.

The second time was when I was 9 and he came over to this side of 'The Pond' for Christmas. I remember him sitting calmly in a large chair, smiling at my cousins and me. I think I saw more than a little amusement in his eye as he watched his huge brood of grandchildren all clamoring for his attention... none of us ever felt neglected in Grandpa Westhead's world.
__________________________________________

Bill Westhead died on October 10, 1976. He left behind 3 children and 9 grandchildren.

Though I only got to meet him those two times, I remember it like it was yesterday. As I look back, his death hurt almost as much as when I lost my Father 4 years later.

I miss the great man a lot.

(My thanks to my Uncle Stan for doing much of the research of Grandpa Westhead's military history)