My great-uncles Jack & William Westcott and In Picardy’s Fields
June is the history and personal month behind my first historical fiction novel, In Picardy’s Fields — a story rooted in my own WW1 family history. If you’ve read my June newsletter, you’ll know why this month matters so much to me personally. Here is where it all began.
In the description of this film — the 1916 Battle of the Somme footage, one of the earliest documentary films ever made — I mentioned my great-uncle, Private Jack Westcott. One of the men shown in that footage could well have been him. Here is his story, and that of his brother William and my ancestry.
How my WW1 family history began
Helen as a young boarding school teacher, 1950, age 22 [Byron Archives]
Two things struck me about this photo. Firstly she wrote on the back that she’s wearing an expensive suit bought at Harrods for her first job at Battle Abbey Girls’ School. It would start off her life-long career as a teacher of French and English in 3 different countries (England, France and Holland). Secondly, how is she sitting in this chair?
Anyway.
My late mother, Helen Ferguson was a keen amateur genealogist of both her own British/Irish ancestry and of the Dutch branch of my father’s family.
At first, I did not share my mum’s fascination for stuffy archives and bone-dry Internet sites, but I inherited the yellow envelopes with all her scribbles and earmarked photographs on her passing in 2017. Moving the envelopes one day – I had cautiously marked them ‘Hannah’s retirement project’- this photo fell out.
Standing left: William Alexander Westcott, sitting Jack Westcott (photo Jan 1915) [Byron Archives]
Written note on back of photo
Now this was intriguing. First someone other than my mother had tried to identify the two relatives who had apparently died in WW1 (see different handwriting in middle of backside note). Then my mother had done some more research and found out they were her uncles William Alexander Westcott and Jack Westcott, brothers to my maternal grandmother.
The WW1 story of my family
A 1915 photograph of family members who have died in the Great War triggered something deeper in me than my mother’s envelopes with her notes. These men were my blood relations, men who had given their lives for our freedom.
And with their ultimate sacrifice, young and childless, they had since my discovery become as forgotten and untraceable as their bodies were, as I was to find out. As both brothers are MIA, they have become anonymous men, listed in archives and on memorials.
Unless I change their fate and write about them, in a small attempt to honour their legacy.
It saddens me that my great-uncles never knew they were war heroes, awarded these medals, let alone pin them proudly on their lapels. So I made it my duty to clean and polish them and iron the worn ribbons. As I was doing this, it struck me that no one today can even publicly wear these medals anymore. They are really history now. Publicly and privately.
William and Jack’s WW1 war medal [Byron Archives]
But something else happened as I took care of the photograph and the medals. I wanted to do more, to also pay homage to the women who stayed behind and suffered the losses. Their silent grief. Jack and William’s mother, my Irish great-grandmother Mary-Ann Meehan, and my grandmother, their sister, only 22 at the time.
And I would write a historical fiction novel about the Battle of the Somme, in which I would sneak in my family’s personal history. It was to become In Picardy’s Fields, dedicated to my great-uncles.
My great-grandmother Mary-Ann Meehan
My grandmother Gertrude at age 20
In the Field: Picardy and the Battle of the Somme
So this month I will take you with me on that trip to the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy and all the other places around it. Even now, years later, all these images are still so vivid and emotional for me. I hope you will find it interesting to know more about the background of In Picardy’s Fields, my very first historical fiction novel.
I’ve started a Pinterest board called “In the Field”. Several times a week throughout June a new pin will drop with a short background story, so make sure you go there regularly, or follow me: Hannah Byron on Pinterest and search the board.
There are YouTube videos to watch here: Hannah Byron on Youtube
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And, of course, my Patreon, which I hope you will join for an in-depth look into the Making of In Picardy’s Fields, the foundation of my Resistance Girl Series and much more to come: Hannah Byron on Patreon
