Dear Unknown Soldier

I am imagining that you are Jobe Hamp who was my grandmother Louisa May's secret first husband. If you had lived, I would never have been born.

What we think happened is that you went to war a short time after your wedding and never returned. As my grandfather, called Jack Rush, also served in the First World War and you all came from London, we think that he was a friend of yours who visited my grandmother to comfort her after your death and married her a few years later. We imagine though, that you were her only real sweetheart, as theirs was a rather volatile relationship and they never really seemed well suited. However, they had two daughters. Dorothy and Edna, and eventually relocated to Northampton, where Jack worked for Express lifts. He had survived the whole of the war, including the first day of the Battle of the Somme, without incurring any injury, although he never talked about it.

On the day of my grandmother's funeral he produced your medals. Apparently, my mother and aunt had already guessed about your existence and the medals proved it.

A few years later, I tracked down your grave in Dunkirk and visited it with my family. We had found out that, before the war, you had been a waterboatman on the Thames and a champion rower. Your mother had disapproved of the wedding and, as it had only lasted a short time before your death, she had claimed all your possessions. My grandmother only had your medals to remind her of you.

I often think about you and my grandmother, who was kind and loving.

Thank you for my gift of life.

Jane Margaret Callaghan (nee Wright)

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