Billie Tickle was born in 1898 and lived in Tottenham, North London. By 1911 he was already claiming to be five years older than he really was. He carried on exaggerating his age and enlisted in the 9th Battalion of the Essex Regiment in September 1914, arriving in France just 11 days after his 17th birthday. After almost a year in France, he took part in an advance in the early hours of the morning of 3 July 1916, and was killed.
Two others feature Binyon’s ‘Lines for the Fallen’ and a poppy
I like the way these stamps are mostly black and grey in colour – with the Queen’s Head in poppy red [or is it perhaps blood red?]
These stamps will be issued in July. But don’t forget, British Postage Stamps will go up in price on March 31st. If you use lots of stamps, you should go and stock up on some now!
I love the poppy one. Thanks for the reminder. I must stock up!
ReplyDeleteWe will remember them.
ReplyDeleteJane x
Thanks, Jane. A salutary reminder that 'lines for the fallen' applies for those lost in ALL the wars of the last 100 years.
DeleteMy great uncle Enoch was killed only two weeks after the start of WW1.
ReplyDeleteHe was part of the ill fated expeditionary force and his name appears on a memorial to 8,000 soldiers with no known grave.
He was seventeen. Such a waste of a young life.
Coming from a mining family in Alfreton he ran away to war to escape a brutal home life. Before they put him on a train to the south coast then on a boat to France, the furthest he had ever been in his life was to Derby, by horse and cart.
Most of today's seventeen year old boys have no idea how lucky they are.