The postcard was found by Jeans daughter when she passed away March 2014. It was sent from Cpl James Frank Burford-Royal Artillery to his then two children, Frank and Jean. We, that is my father Frank, Jean’s daughter, Jacoline Richards and I, Sharon Burford, wondered how James felt when writing a simple note to his children given his own father never made it home from the first world war. James was nine years old when his father, Frank Burford serving in the R.A.S.C died 18th May 1918.
They lived in Menin Road, Billsley, Birmingham. His father, Frank Burford, death medal was placed on a shelf in the Anderson air raid shelter in their back garden and was the only thing ever kept in the shelter during ww2.
Unlike his father James did make it home at the end of the war. he kept his medals in a cigar box on the mantel piece and let his grandchildren play with them. Sadly he passed away before his grandchildren grew up and realised what these medals where for and where not able to thank him for his courage and contribution to ww2 and the freedom we have today. There will never be another generation like those that lived though ww2.
