Just outside Ypres, in the #CWGC's beautiful Kemmel Chateau, is this headstone for 22 year old Lt Horace Collins of the South Staffs, attached to 246th Brigade RFA when he was killed in action on 18th September 1917.
His epitaph really undid us when we first found it.
It simply reads: "Yes Dad"
Perhaps this was the last thing he said to his Father Edward when the family waved him off to War from their home in Ealing or maybe at the train station.
I wonder what his Dad had said to him to elicit this response... Take care of yourself, son... Write to your Mother, son - she worries about you... Make sure you come back to us, son.
So: Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads like Mr Collins who lost their boys, to all the Dads who didn't come home, to all the Dads who should have been and didn't get the chance and to my Dad too.
Always loved, all
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