My great uncle was named George Miller <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was born in 1920 and died violently in 1944<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the D Day landings in Northern France <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am led to believe that he was killed instantly<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By machine gun fire as he waded waist deep <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the sea after leaving the landing craft<\/p>\n\n\n\n
George was married to Mary and was a bookseller<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They lived quietly in Sidcup but had no children <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like me George was a poet but rarely published<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He referred to himself as occasional poet <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he was better than that as he had a unique voice <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year during the very hot summer of 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I visited the beach in France where George was killed<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is today a benign and pleasant place <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With many people enjoying the simple sands <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to my visit I had been told that George <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Always carried a notebook of his poetry <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his tunic pocket so that he might take notes <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is assumed that he was carrying this notebook <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he died although it was never recovered <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be truthful I felt nothing as I stood in the shallows <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where George had been lacerated without conquest <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had hoped to hear his poetry in the summer waves <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But all I felt was the silence and tragedy of a wasted life <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later I visited the military cemetery where George now sleeps<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And left some summer flowers as an act of remembrance <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also left a sealed note from Mary written in violet ink <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She still lives in their original Sidcup home and is in good health <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had mixed feelings as I drove back towards the ferry <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like a fool and a poet I thought that I would hear <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The poetry of George Miller being whispered from the sea <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was an empty fancy and little else <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But at least I had shared the silence of his poetry <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that comforted me and I felt less haunted <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I sailed back towards the country of my birth <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My great uncle was named George Miller He was born in 1920 and died violently in 1944 During the D Day landings in Northern France I am led to believe that he was killed instantly By machine gun fire as he waded waist deep In the sea after leaving the landing craft George was married […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15682"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15689,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15682\/revisions\/15689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}