大象传媒

In July 1917, Margaret Elizabeth Francis left her week-old baby in the care of a neighbour in the Black Mountains and walked 20 miles to Hereford, took a train to London and then a train and boat to France to nurse her son Reginald who had been gassed on the front.

It was the first time that she had left the parish of Newton St Margaret鈥檚 for more than a day; she had never been to London before let alone to another country.

Reginald was serving in the Shropshire Light Infantry when he was injured and went into a coma. It was supposed that he would not survive so the YMCA paid for his mother to go and nurse him over in France. She did this and was away for approximately six weeks.

Reginald鈥檚 grandson Chris says: 鈥淔amily legend has it that when my Grandfather woke up from his coma he spotted his mother and feigned sleep thinking she had come to sort him out for running off to the war without her permission in the first place!鈥�

Location: St Margaret鈥檚 Church, Herefordshire
Image: St Margaret鈥檚 Church and Margaret Elizabeth Francis pictured in the top right, courtesy of Chris Jones

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