Embroidery, medical, Royal Fusiliers...

[Voltigeur]

(EPH 5416).....doen't look like much but it is the story behind it.....
http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib...1976/large.jpg

Embroidery worked by No. 69079, Lance Corporal Charles Francis Smith. Smith was born in 1885 and married Florence Mabel Parry in 1913 with whom he had a daughter, Doreen, in 1924. He lived in Crouch End North London and worked as a postman at Hornsey Post Office. On 8th Dec 1915 he was attested and transferred to 3rd Company, 106th Training Reserve, K Squad, N.C.O. School of Instuction, Castle Hill, Edinburgh until required for service. He was later transferred to 23rd Royal Fusiliers. Smith was injured during the war with shrapnel injuries to his side and damage to his hand. As he lay on the battlefield, the officers came round to shot the badly injured men. He said to them "Don't shoot me!" He spent time in convalescence with other service men and his wounds healed, although one finger was permanently affected. It was during this time that he probably worked the embroidery. After the war he suffered a breakdown due to his war experiences and years later suffered recurring mental problems that saw him in and out of Napsbury Hospital, St. Albans. The donor had papers from the hospital that described this as "Religious Mania", although these papers are now lost. Smith died on 28 March 1939, aged 54, in Napsbury Hospital, from pneumonia.

Jo