Lest we forget

A Poignant story from the Gloucester Citizen newspaper for remembrance Sunday

One Cotswold village will remember the lost Souls who fought and died for their country.
For more than 80 years the story of five brothers called Souls from Great Rissington near Bourton-on-the Water was relatively unknown.

But after being brought to the fore in a series of books and television documentaries, the five heroes became much more than just names on a war memorial.
William and Annie Souls had six sons and three daughters. The five boys who were old enough gave up their farm jobs to fight in the war – but none of them returned.
Twins Alfred and Arthur were both killed in 1918 at the age of 30, five days apart. Alfred died in Flanders and Arthur in France.

Their brothers, Albert and Walter, had already fallen two years earlier. Albert was killed in France in March 1916 at the age of 21. The following day, Walter was wounded on the Somme and died at a hospital in Rouen five months later, aged 24.
The fifth brother, Frederick, went missing in action in France in 1916, aged 30.
His body was never found but his mother kept a candle burning in the cottage window in the hope he might return.
The dreadful news that all five brothers were feared dead was first reported in the Cheltenham Chronicle and Graphic on June 8, 1918.
Under the headline “A Cotswold Family Of Heroes” were photographs of the five young men in uniform.
“Few parents could have had a more grievous blow than Mr and Mrs Souls of Great Rissington, Bourton-on-the-Water,” the report said.
Annie Souls received a shilling for each dead son and a letter from the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith. But the grief-stricken mother would never stand for the singing of God Save The King because she blamed the monarch for her sons’ deaths.