Willing sacrifice...moving story of how FOUR members of one family died in two world wars

IN A windswept country churchyard, carved on a simple memorial among the war dead of a tiny village, are the names of four brave brothers.

It is the only remaining evidence - along with a birthday card scribbled amid the horror of the trenches - of a family tragedy long engulfed by the tide of time.

But on this Remembrance Day the story of the battling Bacon boys - Sidney, Ralph, Percy and Alfred - emerges from the cold stone for the first time.

It is a story that has spanned TWO world wars.

Its journey ends with a lone ancestor who will stand in silence for them this morning - and all their millions of fallen comrades.

And the irony of what is happening now, nearly a century on in Afghanistan, is not lost on their 68-year-old great niece, Heather Wink.

Dying

"It's weird isn't it, once again our youth - like my great uncles - are dying in fields where poppies grow," she says.

"Remembrance Day couldn't be more relevant."

Two of Heather's four great uncles were cut down on the SAME DAY 60 miles apart in the bloody fields of France and Belgium. Another had already died in one of the war's early battles.

Poignantly the eldest brother, Alfred, SURVIVED the trenches - only to die a hero himself 22 years later in a different war . . . just a few streets from where they were all born in Fincham, Norfolk.

Those streets were the Bacon brothers' whole world as they grew up with their teenage sister Lily - Heather's great grandmother - doted on by their loving mother Sarah.

"I don't think they had even ever left Fincham before the First World War started," said Heather.

Like millions of men across the land, the looming conflict abroad promised adventure and excitement at first - especially to young boys from a quiet village with only 520 inhabitants. Farm labourer Sidney, 27 - the second eldest - was the first to join up just before the war started in 1914 - with the 1st Battalion Norfolk Regiment.

And when German forces began advancing through Europe, younger brothers Ralph, 21, and Percy, 17, also felt compelled to fight for King and country. Alfred, at 33, was conscripted to the Royal West Surrey Regiment in 1916.

Their departures for war left the small, close-knit rural community devastated.

"I remember my mother, Lily, telling me how upset the whole village was," says Heather.

"But I don't think anyone could have been more worried or upset then her. She was petrified of losing her big brothers." It wasn't long before her worst fears were realised.

Five days before Christmas in 1914, brave Lance Corporal SIDNEY was killed in the Belgian town of Kemmel - one of the first major battlegrounds of the war, and a location that would be fiercely fought over right through to the conflict's end.

Lily and her mother were distraught - and the youngster had only lines written from her remaining brothers at the front for comfort.

Heather still keeps a treasured and touching birthday card Ralph sent to Lily in December 1916. It read: "My Dearest Lily, first a card to wish you many happy returns of your birthday.

"I wish I was at home so as I could get you a good present, but must hope for better luck long before it comes round again.

"To cheer you up Lily we hope to be with you soon.

"Try and spend your birthday as happy as you can Lily.

"With heaps of love from your ever loving Brother Ralph xxxxxxxxxxxx."

The youngster was also comforted by the fact that, although Alfred had been conscripted, his regiment was still in Britain and held in reserve away from the bloodshed.

But that too was taken from her in March 1917 when her mum Sarah learned that Lily's eldest brother had been sent to the front in France. Still grieving over the loss of Sidney, the news overwhelmed poor Sarah. But worse was to come.

In 1918 the Germans launched the Spring Offensive, a series of attacks that would claim 418,374 British lives.

And two names from that shattering statistic were RALPH and PERCY Bacon - killed within six hours of each other in the offensive's opening barrage on March 21.

Ralph died serving with the 8th Battalion Norfolk Regiment in Languicourt, near Baupaume, France. Percy was with the 13th Battalion of the Kings Royal Rifles when he was gunned down on the Menin Road, near Ypres, Belgium.

But Sarah never received the dreadful news. For the brothers' broken-hearted mother died of natural causes just a few weeks before losing her boys.

Heather says: "The only saving grace is from this that she was spared such tragedy."

Only ALFRED survived the slaughter and came home alone to the village in February 1919 after being discharged.

He went back to live in the family home in Fincham and eventually took up a post as caretaker at the village's main hall.

In 1921 Alfred and a tearful Lily attended a ceremony at the St Martin's Church just a few doors down from the Bacon family home on March 7 1921 to comemmorate the men from the village who had been killed in action.

Sidney, Ralph and Percy's names were on the memorial. And 19 years later, Alfred joined his brothers - but in doing so he saved the lives of three other young village lads who had been just like them.

One night early in 1940 - just months after the outbreak of the Second World War - the popular village character was at his post looking after the village hall and reading rooms - a building he had always loved.

Suddenly three German bombers flew overhead searching for nearby RAF Marham and were met by anti-aircraft fire from the village's searchlight unit. One of the planes, believed to be a Heinkel, peeled off and dropped a string of bombs, most of which fell harmlessly into the Norfolk countryside.

Alfred, then 57, was on duty and watching the three lads playing on the billiard table.

As the bombs fell he rushed to get 14-year-olds Jim Mann, Dennis Bywater and Geoffrey Harrison out of the building.

But after he had made sure they were safe he went back to his beloved hall to shelter under the billiard table as the bombs rained down.

One scored a direct hit, smashing through the roof and exploding as it struck the table.

Pictures taken at the time show bewildered police officers standing in the wreckage - a mangled pile of wood and debris - in which the last Bacon brother died.

All that survives of the building today is a billiard ball with a chunk missing from it and one of the legs from the table itself.

The hall which stood next to the rectory was never rebuilt as a mark of respect to Alfred, who also had his name placed on the war memorial at St Martin's.

Flight Lieutenant Roger Farmer, 50, who now lives in Fincham, has spent many hours with the village's history group looking into the tragic lives of the Bacon brothers.

Stray

He says: "These boys worked as agricultural labourers and must have been stunned by what they saw in the trenches.

"Alfred was forced to join and not allowed to return home after his brothers died - they needed brave men who were capable of fighting.

"He was a popular old boy in the village and after surviving the First World War it really is sad he was killed so randomly by a stray bomb."

Relative Heather - who lives with husband Tony in Downham Market, Norfolk - went on a pilgrimage for the first three lost brothers five years ago, visiting war graves at Ypres.

She says: "Visiting the graveyards across in France and Belgium is such a moving experience.

"You can't count all the stones and crosses and the scale of the slaughter is unimaginable. I don't like thinking about what some of these men must have seen.

"They were cut down in their prime and never able to enjoy having children and spending time with their wives - things normal men should have been able to do.

"Let's just hope that not too many more from this generation share the same fate."

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