30/06/2016 Newsround


30/06/2016

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Good morning, I'm Ayshah with Thursday's stories.

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First up, a statue of a nurse, called Mary Seacole is being

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It's the first one in the UK dedicated to a black woman.

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Children's author Malorie Blackman, who campaigned for the statue,

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If anyone deserves a statue, it is Mary Seacole.

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She was a healer, a businesswoman, and a traveller, which was really

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Black Britons who have been written out of the history books,

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I think it is wonderful that we are now beginning

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Go to Newsround online for my full report on Mary Seacole's statue.

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Next, we've got the incredible story of the 12-year-old

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Good morning. Yes, it is 100 years since the battle of the sun. Here is

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a little fact cash it is called that because of the river Somme, which

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runs through the area where the fighting happens. World War I was a

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massive war, so it needed a lot of people. Lots of the man who signed

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up were very young, just teenagers. Some were even younger than that.

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Sidney Lewis was just 12 years old when he signed up. His son Colin

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tells us his father's incredible story.

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When I was a boy, my father told me that he fought in World War I as a

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soldier will stop and I regret to say that I didn't believe him. After

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all, he was only -- he would only have been 12 years old at the time.

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But at just 12, my dad, Sidney George Lewis, decided they did want

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to join up to fight for his country. Like many young lads, he must have

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got caught up in the excitement and idea of adventure. That is what he

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was like. He always wanted to be where the action was. But you had to

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be 18, a grown-up, to be in the army, so he ran away from home

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without telling any of his family, and when he was asked when

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recruitment officer, he lied about his age. It seems incredible now

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that a 12-year-old could end up in the middle of a world war.

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So there he was, sent to France to fight for his country.

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He was sent to fight on the Somme. It must have been a shark for this

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boy from London, suddenly plunged into the middle of the war. I can't

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imagine the sort of things he must have seen. -- a shock.

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The fields weren't fields any more. The war had churned everything

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Samad, and the sky was black with smoke. -- churned everything to mud.

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There was no birdsong, no animals. He must have seen a lots of men, a

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loss of his friends, died. To face all that and keep going, at

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such a young age, he must have been very brave and very tough boy.

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Back home, his mum, my grandmother, was worried. The newspapers were

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full of stories of tens of thousands of men dying in France. She found

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Sidney's birth certificates, and sent it to the army, demanding that

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he was sent home straightaway safely, because after all, he was

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still a kid. But by now, Sidney was right in the middle of fighting in

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one of the most deadly battles of the Somme. The fighting was so

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fierce that all but one of the trees were burnt to black stumps, blown to

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bits by shells and machine gun fire. His mum must have been very worried

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about him out there, risking his life. With the message to bring him

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back reach his superiors before it was too late? It would have been a

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race against time. But it did reach them. Six weeks of fighting in one

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of the most dangerous battle in the entire war, and Sidney was pulled

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back from the front line and sent home.

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That letter which grandmother sent probably saved his life.

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So my dad, Sidney Lewis, came back. At the age of 12, he joined in one

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of the deadliest world wars, and a year later, came back alive.

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Fascinating stuff. You can go to our website for more on this.

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Just time to tell you about the tennis match

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British qualifier Marcus Willis has ended his Wimbledon run

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Willis has called playing Federer a fairy tale. Willis lost out in the

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second round. He will now take home ?50,000 as prize money. Good for

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him. Newsround's back on CBBC with Ricky

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this afternoon at 4:20. Have a great day, and we'll see you

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soon. Bye-bye.

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