209472 Arthur William Butler British Army Middlesex Regiment from:Hounslow, Middlesex My Grandfather Arthur Butler was 35 when the WW1 broke out, he was married with three young sons aged 4, 2 and 8 mths. But my grandmother told me he felt it was his duty to serve his country. He went to France and served there without getting injured and returned to England sometime in 1915 because his oldest daughter was born in 1916 and then returned to France where he again fought but remained uninjured. He must of come home on leave at the end of 1917 because my mother was born in 1918. That's when his luck ran out as he lost his leg at Ypres sometime in 1918 and was sent home to Liverpool to recover. My grandmother had to travel up to Liverpool to see him leaving her five children at home with her elderly mother and other relatives. When he returned home to Hounslow he was a changed man. Even though he only had one leg he travelled up to London everyday to work but, unfortunately, became dependant on drink. Even though he had two more children after the war, my mother said he spend all his spare time in the local public house. He eventually died of liver cancer caused by excessive drinking in 1932 aged 52 leaving my grandmother to bring up her young daughters on her own. Before the war he never drank or smoked and was by all accounts a jolly man but could not cope with the horrors he had seen in the trenches. He never spoke of them but had terrible nightmares and it caused a lot of friction between him and his wife. She said after he died even though she missed him. He was now at peace and she could live her life the way she wanted to. She lived another 36 years and died at 86.
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