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Nestling under a tree at Newport Cemetery in Lincoln is the grave of Amy Beechey. Every autumn leaves fall onto the mother who lost five sons in the Great War.

Grief wasn’t new for Amy – she had lost a daughter at a young age and Amy’s husband, a Rector at Friesthorpe, died of cancer leaving her to raise 13 children.

Evicted from the Rectory she moved to a small terraced house on Avondale Street in Lincoln.

Of Amy’s eight sons who went to war only three returned.

Barnard, Frank, Harold, Charles and Leonard died on the battlefields of France, Flanders and East Africa.

Their stories are told in hundreds of letters sent by the brothers to Amy from the trenches. In 2010, they were donated to the Museum of Lincolnshire Life. Some are published in the book ‘Brothers In War’ by Michael Walsh.

Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire LN2 5BL
Image: The Memorial Stone on the grave of Amy Beechey in Lincoln