Jack Baird
Jan 12, 2013 20:42:58 GMT
Post by shred on Jan 12, 2013 20:42:58 GMT
OLD soldier Jack Baird is to be honoured for his bravery - 85 years after he was badly wounded in the service of his country.
He will receive France's highest military honour, the Legion d'Honneur, for his role in the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
Jack, aged 105, is one of the last of the Somme survivors and is believed to be the oldest recipient of the medal.
Staff at his nursing home in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, are working with Royal British Legion officials to arrange a private ceremony.
''He'll be tickled pink to finally get it,'' said great-nephew Marc Brealey.
''He told my father an awful lot about the war and his memories of that time are profuse.''
Somme survivor
Jack fought in the trenches during the First World War and the Somme saw some of the heaviest fighting with 415,000 British soldiers killed.
Jack was hit by fragments of a German shell and lost a huge amount of blood but an officer carried him to a field hospital where his life was saved.
It was as he was convalescing that he met his future wife Ellen.
They lived together in Stretford and he worked as a draughtsman until he retired in the 1950s.
The French government awarded the Legion d'Honneur to surviving veterans of the Somme in 1996, the 80th anniversary of the battle, but Jack was unable to attend the ceremony due to ill health.
He was born in Salford in 1896 and joined the Lancashire Fusiliers as a teenager, while his brother Tom joined the Manchester Regiment.
Trench horrors
After the war Jack told how he and his comrades were shelled on the eve of the Big Push, the day more British soldiers died than any other in history.
''Apparently Jack soon had to take cover by travelling down a ramp into deeper trench lines - but all in single file,'' said Marc, who has been researching his great uncle's life.
He describes hearing a huge shell coming at the group, pressing his body against the trench for cover and getting hit in the shoulder by shrapnel.
''My Aunt Pat used to play with the fragments well after the war,'' said Marc.
''The shell wound caused a great loss of blood. He collected his wits and decided that waiting for a stretcher meant death so he struggled to find a field hospital, although he was very dangerously ill.''
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He will receive France's highest military honour, the Legion d'Honneur, for his role in the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
Jack, aged 105, is one of the last of the Somme survivors and is believed to be the oldest recipient of the medal.
Staff at his nursing home in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, are working with Royal British Legion officials to arrange a private ceremony.
''He'll be tickled pink to finally get it,'' said great-nephew Marc Brealey.
''He told my father an awful lot about the war and his memories of that time are profuse.''
Somme survivor
Jack fought in the trenches during the First World War and the Somme saw some of the heaviest fighting with 415,000 British soldiers killed.
Jack was hit by fragments of a German shell and lost a huge amount of blood but an officer carried him to a field hospital where his life was saved.
It was as he was convalescing that he met his future wife Ellen.
They lived together in Stretford and he worked as a draughtsman until he retired in the 1950s.
The French government awarded the Legion d'Honneur to surviving veterans of the Somme in 1996, the 80th anniversary of the battle, but Jack was unable to attend the ceremony due to ill health.
He was born in Salford in 1896 and joined the Lancashire Fusiliers as a teenager, while his brother Tom joined the Manchester Regiment.
Trench horrors
After the war Jack told how he and his comrades were shelled on the eve of the Big Push, the day more British soldiers died than any other in history.
''Apparently Jack soon had to take cover by travelling down a ramp into deeper trench lines - but all in single file,'' said Marc, who has been researching his great uncle's life.
He describes hearing a huge shell coming at the group, pressing his body against the trench for cover and getting hit in the shoulder by shrapnel.
''My Aunt Pat used to play with the fragments well after the war,'' said Marc.
''The shell wound caused a great loss of blood. He collected his wits and decided that waiting for a stretcher meant death so he struggled to find a field hospital, although he was very dangerously ill.''
Link