Telling Stories With Words and Pictures
Today’s Remembrance Day marks the 103rd anniversary of the Armistice that ended the First World War. Both my Grandfathers took part in the conflict and survived. But Percy Fernley wasn’t as lucky. Nineteen year old Percy was enlisted in the Manchester Regiment and died on the first day of the Battle of Paschendale. As far …
In December 1919, Tom Clarke, formerly of the Cheshire Regiment, wrote to his old army pal, Edward Fernley. The two men had recently been discharged from active service and transferred to the reserve. In his letter, which Edward, my grandfather, kept all his life, Tom Wrote: ‘I have got quite used to civvies now… I …
Here’s the earliest document from our family archives that I possess. It records the marriage of my great-grandfather, Edward Fernley, to his first wife, Mary Garger. The marriage took place in 1861, but Mary died some years later and Edward married twice more before his death in 1921. There’s a mystery surrounding Mary that I …