Although the war had ended, the children on the 1,245 had a far from certain life ahead of them.
Their stories are all different but they all shared the prospect of growing up without their natural father. Sometimes confirmation of that life-changing fact came in a simple letter sent to their mother like this one sent to Lilian Holmes, the widow of Alfred and mother of Martha, Mary and Stephen.
It was common for widows to remarry, often out of financial necessity, have further children and sometimes move away – all further upheaval for the young children facing life without dad.
George Blackburn’s parents, Henry and Catherine, had married while Catherine was expecting George, and an older sister Mary had already been born. Before his father’s death at the Somme in March 1917, his parents had three further children. Following Henry’s death, and already with five young children, Catherine remarried and had a further five.
Kenneth Dowie’s dad John was killed five days after Kenneth’s 5th birthday in 1918 and his body never recovered from the battlefield. Kenneth’s mother remarried in 1920, later dying in London.
Widows were not well provided for. John Robert Brackenbury’s mother received £258 from the effects of John’s father, a school teacher, also called John. Some received even less, or nothing.
Some of the children of the 1,245 were brought up in single parent households. Helena, Leonard and Annie Allen were brought up by their mother Eliza (who went on to live until aged 102) - possibly supported by her parents, and possibly by Eliza resuming her career as a dressmaker following their father Francis’ death at Gallipoli.