Like many of his generation he spoke little about his experiences, but would do so if asked (keeping much detail to himself).
I remember as a boy him telling me that during training he was found to be the best shot in the battalion and was therefore trained as a Lewis Gunner. This lead to him being promoted to Lance Corporal. But he didn’t finish the war as a Lance Corporal and wasn’t one when admitted to Canadian Hospital when gassed.
He once told me about a ‘field prison, surrounded by barbed wire’. In this were British troops. He said that they were locked in there because they had venereal disease.
The curved ceiling of the Menin Gate Memorial with the rebuilt town in the distance.
A detail of Panel 11 of the Memorial with Joe’s friend Fellowes among those without a grave.
Army map of 1st Ypres 29th October, 1914 – source, copy in the 'In Flanders Fields Museum', with permission. Where Joseph Garvey was captured is circled.
The Scots Guards are listed on Panel 11 on the Menin Gate. Just some of the 58,000 fallen who could not be identified.