Tragic tale of Shropshire brothers in arms

They had three sons fighting at the front. Albert died of wounds on September 7. Edmund was killed in action on September 27. Arthur was so seriously wounded on October 4 that he was sent home to England.

"The poor family. You can't imagine what the parents must have been going through," said Heather Ashton of Bishop's Castle, whose father-in-law George Pope was the fourth son.

With it being the centenary of those tragic events she has been researching this family story and has uncovered previously unknown snippets and, by piecing together the clues of caps and cap badges, has confirmed who is who on some family pictures of those Great War soldiers.

And she has also found out at last where the names of the two Pope brothers are recorded on a local war memorial.

"We did know little bits already. My husband Dave's sister Nancy has done quite a lot of looking into the past. George Pope was her stepdad from the age of six. She had done a little delving and with it being the 100th anniversary I thought I would look a bit further."

The story that emerged was of two of the brothers, Edmund and Arthur, emigrating to Australia in 1915, and enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force and returning to fight. Edmund, the eldest, had been born in Lydham, near Bishop's Castle, in 1888. Arthur was also born in the Bishop's Castle area.

"Dave and Nancy didn't think Arthur had been in the Army at all, thinking that because he was a farmer he was exempt. But when I found Edmund on the passenger list for Australia, I also found an A. Pope and thought that that was a coincidence. I looked him up and found he was in the Australian Imperial Force as well. Dave didn't even know he had been to Australia."

Private Albert Samuel Pope, born at Brockton, near Shifnal, the third son, was the first to lose his life. He had enlisted soon after the outbreak of war, serving first in the Cheshire Yeomanry, but was discharged through ill health. However he later re-enlisted in the Cheshire Regiment, and was at some stage wounded, but obviously recovered.

The 23-year-old met his death when he was hit by a machine-gun bullet while in the trenches and died at the casualty clearing station on September 7, 1917.

His officer wrote to his parents, who were living at the time at Henley Common Farm, Marshbrook, near Church Stretton, saying "he was one of my best and most trustworthy men, and always did his duty cheerfully and well."

Albert is buried at Tincourt Cemetery.

Edmund, who was serving in the Australian Imperial Force, was killed in action in Belgium, near Ypres, on September 27, 1917. He has no known grave, and his name is on the Menin Gate Memorial to the missing.

"Arthur was injured on October 4. He was sent back home with concussion and shell shock. He never went back to the front.

"George, my husband's father, was the youngest, born in 1898, and was still in training at the time. He served in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry and was in Salonika."

George died in 1986 and was typical of many Great War veterans in keeping his experiences to himself.

"He never spoke about it, not ever."

Heather says that for years they looked for the two brothers' names on a local memorial plaque, and that quest has now come to a successful conclusion.

"The names of Edmund and Albert are on a plaque inside the church at Acton Scott, where Dave's granddad happened to be living and working at the time."

Edmund's full name was Edmund Holl Pope, with Holl, his mother's maiden name, often being misspelt as Hall on the records she has come across. Ironically, on the plaque his middle name is correctly given as Holl, but it gets his first name wrong, calling him Edward.

Dave and Heather still have the "dead man's penny" for both of the brothers, medallions which were issued to the bereaved relatives, and that misspells his middle name as well.

Heather added: "Each time I find more information I am reminded how sad it must have been for their parents and what a stupid loss of such young men."