Returned to the family.....

[Chris Boonzaier]

Some years ago on Ebay I bought a small group to Hauptmann d. Res Heyder, a Reserve officer who served in the Bavarian Infantry Leib regiment but mobilised in the 1^st Bavarian Landwehr Regt , killed at Souain on the 15zh of January 1915. I saw the man had been a forester about 10KM from where I lived in Bavaria. In fact, he had lived about 2km away from a collector friend, who was also a forester!! What a coincidence! … an even bigger coincidence, my collector friend told me that Heyder’s grandson had been his math teacher, and a collector friend of ours had gotten a ribbon bar from him many years ago!.. And that collector friend then said “I still have the bar… and because you are such a great dude and all children and animals like you… you can add it to your frame!” (well, that’s how I remember it… )… so in the frame is a small framed picture of him, a dogtag case with his dog tag, the ribbon bar, the papers, coins, medaillions and glasses all fit into the wallet and according to a note were returned to the family as such… and some dried flower(s= that I collected from the garden of the graveyard of the church at Somme Py where his body was laid out after his death… We get all excited about what we collect, there is no harm n that… but sometimes we need to stop and look at the people involved.

[graham]

Glad to hear all children and animals like you!!! Great story and piece of history, thanks for sharing.

[VtwinVince]

That's great, another example of the maxim 'es ist eine kleine Welt'.