Mother of five sons killed in war

[Guest newworldmember]

I believe there was a woman in Great Britain who lost all five of her sons in the Great War. Her reaction to this tragedy crystalized into such revulsion that she forever after refused to stand whenever God Save the King was played in a theater or elsewhere.

Has anyone ever heard this story or perhaps one like it?

Cory Kilvert

[InkyBill]

The memorial i'm reserching lists the names of three brothers all killed during WW1, these boys had no other siblings so their parents lost everthing. Whats worse is one needn't of died, he accidently fell overboard whilst serving in the navy.

[Tom Morgan]

Cory, Mrs. C. S. Wood who was born in England but lived in Canada, lost five sons during the war. There is an excellent article about here which you can see if you click here.

Tom

[ianw]

While researching the Leatherhead, Surrey War Memorial, we discovered that the Taylor family lost 5 sons out of 7 during the Great War with one of the survivors coming home minus a leg ! As far as we know the parents were not specially treated in any way and the magnitude of the loss is not flagged on the memorial in any way - indeed the son who died in uniform at home has been denied a place on the memorial ! It leads me to pose the depressing question "Any advance on 5 ?".

[Nicolas G.]

Hi All & Happy New Year,

Reading this thread remembers me what I found very poignant at Hangard Communal Cemetery Extension while touring the Somme 1918 battlefield with a fellow. Seems to match with what Cory asks for.

Here are photos I shoot, the note spare me other comments - it was inside the cemetery register (joined by the local Luce/Mapple Leaf Association).

Nicolas

[Nicolas G.]

The grave of one of the sons, buried in Hangard :

[aliecoco]

Hi,

I am currently off work with a cold, and spent yesterday afternoon on the sofa watching the UK history channel with back to back episodes of the 1914-1918 series.

There was a story about a woman on a train. She kept counting her fingers on one hand, one, two, three, four, five. In the end the other passengers starting laughing at her. Then her husband said, "Please do not laugh at her, she is my wife and has lost five sons in the war, I am just taking her to an asylum".

(Or words very similar to that effect.)

Alie.

[Alison Arnold]

Nicolas,

Thank you for sharing that. The grave in your picture is of Arthur William Souls 16 Battalion Cheshire Regiment his twin brother Alfred had died just 5 days previously. I am currently researching the men of the 11 Battalion Cheshire Regiment and Alfred is one of them.

Of the remaining 3 brothers Frederick George also 16 Battalion Cheshire Regiment died 19th July 1916, Walter Davis Souls 5 Bde Machine Gun Corps died 2 August 1916 and Albert 5 Coy MGC died 14 March 1916.

Ali

[Guest Hill 60]

I have posted this photo before, but I can't remember where!

I took it in a cemetery in Bedford (Foster Hill Road).

[jimmyjames]

The Souls family of Great Rissington, Gloucestershire, indeed lost 5 sons in the Great War as previous posts will confirm. The "Gloucestershire Echo" of Saturday 10th November 2001 published a two-page spread "Remembering the lost Souls" in the Nostalgia Section of the newspaper.

Mrs Katherine Hall, aged 87 in 2001, a relative of the boys mother, Mrs Annie Souls, is quoted as saying "It upset her greatly. She would'nt stand for God Save The King because she blamed him for the war. She stood just once, at my school, so as not to embarrass me but it was painful for her."

Mrs Hall also remembers being told of gossip within the village about how well off Annie Souls must have been with the pensions for five dead sons.

Photos of the five dead sons also appear in the article with descriptions of how each met their fate - very, very moving.

I believe that the article was also published in Saga Magazine of November 2001.