CLIFFORD NATION
Clifford Nation completed three years with the Colours in March 1914, but was called up from the Reserves at outbreak of the Great War. He spent the whole of the 1914-1918 War on the western front, and suffered no physical injury.
His Service Record can be viewed in full if you click here.
He spent his pre-War years with the Colours in the Royal Regiment of Artillery, and served as a Gunner with 50th Battery, 34th Brigade, RFA and trained as a Signaller.
The photographs above and left are almost definitely pre-War. Grandad (on the right) is pictured in his RFA uniform. Note the crossed flags on his left forearm - the badge of a Signaller.
Also, they're wearing spurs!
These were the early days of using aeroplanes for observation, and Grandad is shown below (4th from the left) in around 1912 with a group of people next to a monoplane. Is the pilot Bleriot??
He spent time on the Western Front with the 5th Division Ammunition Column, the 27th Brigade Ammunition Column, and at 5th Divisional Artillery Headquarters.
On 28 April 1917 he was compulsorily transferred to the Royal Engineers and posted to 5th Signal Company.
To learn more about Signals in the Great War, and the role of a Divisional Ammunition Column, click here!
The picture on the right shows Grandad lying in his billet at some time during the Great War. Note the crown-shaped noticeboard on the wall behind him containing his favourite photographs. Is Beulah in one of them?
Although looking happy and relaxed here, his experiences during World War I obviously took their toll. After returning home and starting a family with Beulah, he said he would shoot both his boys before they left the house rather than let them fight in a war.
Clifford Nation married Beulah Dymer at the Parish Church, Durrington, near Salisbury in Wiltshire on 10 October, 1918. Their witnesses were Beulah's sister, Clara, and her husband, Walter Munns. Walter also served with the British Army.