Band of brothers torn apart by war

As siblings go, the Atkins brothers were as close as you could get.

The four boys grew up as best friends, attended the same school and all signed up to the forces when their country called.

They shared a love of music – playing piano together – and would often entertain friends alongside their sister, who played the violin, at their home in Newfoundpool, Leicester.

Walter Atkins, and his three brothers, George, Frederick and Ernest, were all part of the Leicestershire Regiment during the First World War.

Two of the brothers died as a result of the conflict. The others were left deeply affected by what happened.

Irene Church, 88, of Newfoundpool, has left tributes to her uncles -the Atkins brothers – as part of our Faces of the Fallen campaign.

We are calling on readers to go online and leave memories of those who lost their lives, and upload photographs of them.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission's list of people from Leicestershire who were killed in the conflict is not exhaustive, so we are also asking people to add profiles of loved ones who are missing from the site.

Irene said: "They were very funny men and they got along ever so well.

"But they didn't talk much about the war. They would get very serious and change the subject."

Despite signing up, George Atkins never left England during the war, while his three brothers were all sent away to fight in the trenches of France.

Frederick had joined the Navy, however, and they discovered he was underage so he was ordered to leave.

He later went to join his brothers Walter and Ernest in the Army.

Irene's daughter, Elaine, said: "They used to say the mud was atrocious and they were never dry.

"Ernest told me how he played the piano in front of all the soldiers in a barn in France and they were hugely entertained.

"But that was about all he would say. He said that nobody wanted to hear about the horrifying things that went on."

In 1916, the trio came home on leave to visit their family and teachers at their old school, Inglehurst.

Later that year, all three fought together at the Battle of the Somme – where Walter, in the 9th Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment, lost his life. The 20-year-old was shot in the leg on the battlefield and lay there all night undiscovered.

A German soldier found him at dawn – amongst a scattering of dead bodies – and took him back to the field hospital behind enemy lines.

He was treated by German medics but died of his wounds a few days later on October 1, 1916.

His body is buried at St Sever Cemetery, in Rouen, northern France.

Frederick came under a mustard gas attack towards the end of the war and suffered from ill health as a result. Several years after the war, aged 34, he died as a result of what he had suffered during the conflict.

Ernest, who fought in the Tank Regiment, and George – who never left the British Isles to fight – survived the war.

The name of Walter Atkins appears on a plaque, at Inglehurst Junior School.

It contains 44 names of former pupils killed during the First World War.