{"product_id":"9780007589555_the-forgotten-soldier-part-3-of-3-he-wasnt-a-soldier-he-was-just-a-boy","title":"The Forgotten Soldier (Part 3 of 3): He wasn’t a soldier, he was just a boy","description":"\u003cp\u003eBestselling author Charlie Connelly returns with a First World War memoir of his great uncle, Edward Connelly, who was an ordinary boy sent to fight in a war the likes of which the world had never seen.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut this is not just his story; it is the story of all the young forgotten soldiers who fought and bravely died for their country\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Forgotten Soldier tells the story of Private Edward Connelly, aged 19, killed in the First World War a week before the Armistice and immediately forgotten, even, it seems, by his own family.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEdward died on exactly the same day, and as part of the same military offensive, as Wilfred Owen. They died only a few miles apart and yet there cannot be a bigger contrast between their legacies. Edward had been born into poverty in west London on the eve of the twentieth century, had a job washing railway carriages, was conscripted into the army at the age of eighteen and sent to the Western Front from where he would never return.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe lies buried miles from home in a small military cemetery on the outskirts of an obscure town close to the French border in western Belgium. No-one has ever visited him.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike thousands of other young boys, Edward’s life and death were forgotten.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy delving into and uncovering letters, poems and war diaries to reconstruct his great uncle’s brief life and needless death; Charlie fills in the blanks of Edward’s life with the experiences of similar young men giving a voice to the voiceless. Edward Connelly’s tragic story comes to represent all the young men who went off to the Great War and never came home.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a book about the unsung heroes, the ordinary men who did their duty with utmost courage, and who deserve to be remembered.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Charlie Connelly","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47285444018325,"sku":"9780007589555","price":2.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/9780007589555.jpg?v=1776992203","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9780007589555_the-forgotten-soldier-part-3-of-3-he-wasnt-a-soldier-he-was-just-a-boy","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}