TORONTO – The descendant of a WWI soldier has discovered an incredible story in the files of her grandfather, a British soldier whose last wish was fulfilled by a German soldier that she believes killed him.
Private Percy Buck clutched the black and white photo of his wife Bertha and young son Cyril as he lay fatally wounded in a shell hole on the Western Front in the First World War.
On the back, he had written his address and asked for whoever found the photo to post it back to his loved ones in the event of his death.
“The box has been passed down to me and in it were these letters by the German soldier and the Red Cross explaining the return of the photo to my grandmother in 1917,” Private Buck’s granddaughter Christina Reynolds said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“It was this German soldier who probably killed my grandfather in an act of war.”
There is no evidence, however, that the very soldier that returned the photo Gefreiter Josef Wilczek—a Lance Corporal in the German army—is the one who shot Private Buck.
The story came to light after Reynolds unearthed the photograph among her father’s belongings.
In the box, along with the photograph, Reynolds found the devastating telegram that informed her grandmother of her husband’s death and a letter from Wilczek to the to the Red Cross who returned it to England.
“He was holding the card in his hand, and, as I learnt later on, that the finder was asked to forward it to his wife,” says Wilczek’s letter to the Red Cross. “I wishing to fulfill the last will of the dead comrade, send it to you with the request to forward it to his wife.”
“May he rest in Peace. I should be very pleased to hear whether his wife has received the card.”
The Red Cross then sent the following letter to Bertha Buck along with her husband’s photograph:
“He didn’t have to take the time out and maybe risk punishment to fulfill my grandfather’s wishes,” said Reynolds. “He could have left it there. The two men didn’t know each other but it was very kind of him to do what he did for a fellow soldier.”
Private Buck’s body was never found. In a sad twist, the photo may have been a key item that could have identified his body. It is believed that his remains are in an unmarked grave in Flanders.
According to the Herts at War project, Wilczek did not survive the war and was killed on Oct. 31, 1918.
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