{"id":33010,"date":"2024-04-10T10:06:09","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T08:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/63d32d91-001d-4d5a-b302-0d87cd59fded"},"modified":"2024-04-10T11:34:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T09:34:27","slug":"my-grandfather-lost-his-eye-after-being-shot-in-the-forehead-on-the-western-front","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/rss_feed\/my-grandfather-lost-his-eye-after-being-shot-in-the-forehead-on-the-western-front\/","title":{"rendered":"My grandfather lost his eye after being shot in the forehead on the Western Front"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 10 April 2024 at 08:06 AM<\/p>

\n\n

My abiding memory of my grandfather Herman Pike is his eyes,\u201d says Jon Gliddon, a former mining engineer who lives in Somerset. \u201cHe had one slightly askew, and I was never sure which eye to look into. Years later I discovered that he had his right eye removed and replaced with a glass eye, because of a wound he suffered in the First World War<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>

Herman was born in Exeter, Devon, in 1899, and worked as an organ builder. \u201cHe was a quiet, thoughtful and kind man. He passed away in 1960, when I was only eight years old.\u201d<\/p>

Like many of his generation, Herman kept his wartime experiences to himself. \u201cAll the family knew was that he enlisted with one of the Training Regiments four days before his 18th birthday.\u201d<\/p>

In 2014, Jon retired and decided to research his grandfather\u2019s life. \u201cI had a breakthrough when I met Cliff Chappell, who was apprenticed to my grandfather in the 1950s. Cliff told me that Herman was a marksman, and that he was wounded when he \u2018looked up, one too many times\u2019.\u201d<\/p>

Jon found Herman\u2019s British Army pension record on Ancestry<\/a>, which proved a revelation. \u201cGrandfather fought with the 6th Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment, and joined \u2018A\u2019 Company in France on 10 April 1918. The pension record also revealed that he suffered gunshot wounds on 4 November, a week before the Armistice.<\/p>

\u201cMy next destination was The Keep Military Museum in Dorchester, Dorset, where the regimental records are held. I wanted to know exactly where Herman was stationed, and which battles he fought in.<\/p>

\u201cThe knowledgeable staff gave me copies of the battalion records for 4 November, and the trench maps.\u201d The regiment was engaged in the Battle of the Sambre, which was part of the Allied armies\u2019 push towards Belgium.\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cThe Dorsets came under heavy machine-gun fire from the retreating Germans. I was able to pinpoint that Herman was wounded while fighting in the Forest of Mormal, just south of the Route de la Flaquette. His company was 800 yards north-west of the village of Locquignol when he was hit. Bullet fragments entered his forehead just above the right eye, his nose and right hand, between 3pm and 5pm.\u201d<\/p>

Jon was so enthralled that he decided to retrace Herman\u2019s steps. \u201cIn 2015 I visited France, and walked the length of the road where the Dorsets came under fire. Weeks earlier, Herman\u2019s company had to negotiate a ravine to reach the Front. The track is only wide enough for single file, so I literally walked in my grandfather\u2019s footsteps. It was very moving, and I found myself talking out loud to Herman.\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cGrandfather was involved in several major battles. I used to think that Herman was unlucky to have been injured just before the Armistice, but now I realise how fortunate he was. The Allied push in 1918 resulted in some of the bloodiest battles of the war, and the Dorsets suffered particularly heavy losses.\u201d<\/p>

Jon found the bravery of Herman and his comrades so inspiring that in 2018 he collated the regimental records into a book. It\u2019s called Mud, Blood and Bayonet: The Story of the 6th Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment, 1918 Day by Day<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cWhile the brave Dorsets are no longer with us, their experiences are captured in the War Diaries, and their handwritten notes are still legible on dog-eared trench maps. Mud, Blood and Bayonet<\/em> is dedicated to my family hero, Herman Alfred Pike.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

Do you have a family story to share with <\/em>Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine? Email wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk<\/a> for your chance to appear in the magazine!<\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Published: Wednesday, 10 April 2024 at 08:06 AM My abiding memory of my grandfather Herman Pike is his eyes,\u201d says Jon Gliddon, a former mining engineer who lives in Somerset. \u201cHe had one slightly askew, and I was never sure which eye to look into. Years later I discovered that he had his right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":33011,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/04\/my-grandfather-lost-his-eye-after-being-shot-in-the-forehead-on-the-western-front.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/04\/my-grandfather-lost-his-eye-after-being-shot-in-the-forehead-on-the-western-front-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/04\/my-grandfather-lost-his-eye-after-being-shot-in-the-forehead-on-the-western-front-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/04\/my-grandfather-lost-his-eye-after-being-shot-in-the-forehead-on-the-western-front-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/04\/my-grandfather-lost-his-eye-after-being-shot-in-the-forehead-on-the-western-front-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/04\/my-grandfather-lost-his-eye-after-being-shot-in-the-forehead-on-the-western-front.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/04\/my-grandfather-lost-his-eye-after-being-shot-in-the-forehead-on-the-western-front.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Wednesday, 10 April 2024 at 08:06 AM My abiding memory of my grandfather Herman Pike is his eyes,\u201d says Jon Gliddon, a former mining engineer who lives in Somerset. \u201cHe had one slightly askew, and I was never sure which eye to look into. Years later I discovered that he had his right…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/33010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}