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Rifleman William Snow

At the time, I had no idea his story would turn into an
obsession of fact but over the past 17 years I have slowly put
the pieces of a very large puzzle together through war records,
Regimental history, family history plus one or two other facts
until I got to the point where I felt I knew his story.

So in this month’s edition we shall look at how William ended
up as a character in a book. We shall look at how the hell I
ended up writing a book in the first place and the story of ‘The
Spirit of Christmas 1940’.
................

Now here’s the thing, ‘The Spirit of Christmas 1940’ originally
was never meant to be a book. In actual fact it started of life
as a musical show. I had this hair brained idea, following the
success of my first attempt with ‘A Song for a Hero’, to write a
kind of Phantom of the Opera type story during the Second
World War. I had a romantic idea of staging it on a London
train station, one of those old Victorian style stations like
Waterloo or Kings Cross. There was to be three main characters
in the story to turn the story into a love triangle. Yeah, that one
didn’t last very long. The three characters were intended to be
Rose, a flower seller on the station with one of those old flower
carts, a jack-the-lad cockney newspaper seller called Jimmy. A
typical ‘read all abaht it’ type lad who has a dodgy deal or two
under his jacket. This character has been so much fun to write
about. Finally, the ghost of a soldier who haunts the station
looking to comfort the loved ones of soldiers who fail to return
from war. I couldn’t help but give our soldier a true character
which brought our story to life. This is where William Snow
would eventually come in.

So we now have the idea, the characters and setting for the proved to be quite simple. Not too far from where we lived was
story. I busily started to write song after song to tell the story in the Great Western Railway station at Kidderminster. A typical
similar fashion to the way I wrote ‘A Song for a Hero’. However, 1940’s style station complete with steam engines and authentic
taking the story forward was proving to be more complicated stands and furniture. Absolutely perfect. We spent many hours
than I thought. In fact, it was a complete pain in the a*** to be at the station soaking up the atmosphere and imagining how
honest. this station could become my fictitious setting.

Eventually, I binned the song writing and decided to just write The soldier needed a story. It’s not the easiest thing in the world
the story. I had the story firmly fixed in my mind while I was to make up a story about a soldier and keep the cold hard truth
writing the songs but couldn’t make it live the way I wanted. So alive of the realities. So I decided to do both. I would use my
I began to write the story down. The more I wrote, the more great uncle William as the soldier using his real life story to
I realised where I was going wrong. It was all to do with the create the character but also take the chance to tell his story as it
Soldier and the Station. These were the two main parts of the happened in an attempt to keep his memory alive.
story, probably the most important parts. The station actually
William has very few relatives left and apart from my sister and
me, he has faded away from the family line, at least in memory.
The truth was that his name would very well die with us so I am
using the book to preserve him. At least anyone who reads the
story will come to know William Snow. One soldier who gave
everything.
The musical play turned into a book because it gave William
more of a foothold in history. Simple really. I must say, I
never thought that writing this book would ever give me so
much satisfaction. But this really only came out once I had a
connection with William. So next month, I would like to share
William’s real life story. His background, his enlistment, his
service, the regiment and his death. Lest we forget.

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