Peter Ewart gave us an informative and entertaining talk ‘Our family at War’. He selected a range of characters from the families of himself and his wife. Some distinguished, some notorious who served in our Army or Navy, or those of other states, during the 19th and 20th centuries.
His first character was ‘Fighting Barratt’, a Royal Marine in Nelson’s navy, who enjoyed nothing more than a good punch-up, in spite of having lost a leg! Retired from the Service, he provoked a man in Canterbury into fighting him against his will, and ended up dead!
Fortunately not all Peter’s examples were bad characters! Born 1810, Richard Tiddy saw much service in the Royal Navy off South America, and was in the Baltic in the Crimean War. Whilst Horace Finn suffered four wounds in the assault on Sebastopol when serving in the Rifle Brigade,
Peter also had some real heroes. Captain Samuel Palmer was sent by our government to set up a lifeboat service in Turkey. After saving many lives, he was sadly drowned trying to rescue a man. Whilst, more happily, John Ewart served in the cavalry and was recommended for the V.C. for saving an officer’s life in the Boer War.
Turning to more familiar territory, Peter told of family members’ varied experiences in the World Wars. He emphasised that whilst his was not a ‘military’ family, he had found a good number of military and naval ancestors and encouraged us to look for our own.
Michael Lucas - Thanet Branch chairman