Les never mentioned this grave, which suggests he was unaware of it. It must have been a horrific period for William, the surviving father: a daughter, a son and a wife all dead within the space of six months. What had happened? Tuberculosis, or TB as it was known Constance died of the disease in June, followed by Eliza in December. Still, it was suprising to see that his mother and sister had also died in the same year. The wording is ambiguous and led to the understandable confusion with the TWGPP. Alf’s name was listed at the bottom, noting that he had fought and died in the Great War. Intrigued, my mother made a small donation and received an image of grave, which actually proved to be the final resting place of Eliza and Constance, Alf’s mother and sister. Logging on to the War Graves Photographic Project (TWGPP) database, Alf’s final resting place was listed as Earlsfield, near Clapham Junction, which was clearly not the case as he was buried in Roclincourt. Going back to 1917, we discovered Alf’s family had suffered far more agony than we ever knew. However, there is a sobering irony here: this twist of fate, to which my mother, brother and I all owe our existence, was possible only because Les was running the shop due to Alf’s death. Les asked her for a date and the rest, as they say, is history. He also met his future wife, Joan, when she came in one day looking to buy some goods.

It says something of his abilities that he succeeded in making it a success despite his youth. Maude was able to retain a shop in the early 1930s, which Les took over when he was old enough. Perhaps it was this and not the Crash that Les was referring to and that he had mistakenly fused the two events together. The record companies were wound up in the subsequent liquidation, including Coliseum and anything Alf’s estate might have invested in or was owed in terms of credit. If true, it could have hardly come at a worse time as Cooper Brothers had gone bust in 1927, owing £20,000 in liabilities, a hefty sum for the time. According to Les, a small fortune was lost following the Great Crash of 1929 and during Great Depression of the early 1930s. Worse still, the family fell into financial difficulty almost ten years later. Ron and Les, although still young boys, were sent to a boarding school and Les later revealed this to be a soul-destroying experience that stayed with him throughout his life. Nonetheless, the learning curve for Maude must have been steep and her time and energy were dedicated to keeping the family afloat.

Fortunately, she would have had help from other family members, while my grandfather recalled that Joe Cooper was also on hand, probably looking after any remaining interests that Alf’s estate had in Coliseum. It must have been a daunting prospect for her as this was still an age when mainstream society believed a woman’s place was at home. Maude had probably been running Alf’s shops while he was away and now he was gone forever. Did Maude think that Alf, like Elijah, had suffered in the wilderness? Suffering greatly, he asks God to kill him but is instead sent an angel who gives him food and sustenance. The section quoted refers to Elijah’s flight into the wilderness after defeating the followers of Baal and Asherah. We shall never know the reasoning behind Maude’s choice, although we can assume Mendelssohn would have been known to Alf and maybe this piece was one of his favourites. This is a line taken from Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah, an oratorio from the mid-19th Century and an adaptation of Psalm 37:7. Maude chose: ‘Oh rest in the Lord, wait patiently for him and he shall give thee thy heart’s desire’. Corpses or remains found without name tags or any other form of identification were buried as ‘A soldier of the Great War / known unto God’.Īt the bottom of each grave stone, underneath the name and associated regimental or corps badge, the family could choose a line of remembrance. Thousands of other families only knew that their loved ones were missing presumed dead, with most either atomised by artillery or swallowed up by the earth. They could count themselves lucky in one respect: at least they knew where their family member was buried. Later, as the bodies were being reburied in ordered rows, the families of the dead were contacted and told where their loved ones would be laid to rest in perpetuity. The carnage came to a halt on the 11th hour of the 11th day of 11th month, 1918.

Shards of war dead