Are we related?

This is a special blog, for Remembrance Day.  William Mitchell’s Army No. was 58767.  His mother (my grandmother) died on November 11, 1907, at Troon Scotland — exactly 100 years ago today.  William was then 15 years old.  When WWI started, he was just the right age to enlist, which he did in 1915.  He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in France.  We have one notice from the War Office advising that William Mitchell was admitted to No.32 Stationary Hospital at Wimereux (which is close to Boulogne) on 3/10/1917.  This points to his being wounded sometime in late September as he would first be taken to a front line Regimental Aid Post where he would have emergency treatment, then on to a Casualty Clearing Station close behind the front line to await transport by train to a base hospital. This transfer took a long time if heavy losses were being suffered. We believe he was injured in the vicinity of Ypres.

My brother recollects that our father was wounded three times. The notice we have was probably the second of two shrapnel injuries. The third time he suffered from poison gas and as a result was in hospital at the Military Hospital, Netley in Southampton for some time after the end of the War. 

Father survived WW1 and went on to marry and produce 4 children.  However, he died from Carcinoma of Bronchus in 1950 while still a relatively young man, and my belief is that he gave his life for his country even though he survived the War.

Mitch Mitchell.