‘The Evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones’ declares Antony in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.  Perhaps in more contemporary times, ‘the evil that men do’ might be replaced by ‘the debts that men incur’ – debts definitely live after them.

Family tree research has brought a frequent occurrence of Joe’s name. Joe died in January 1915.  A bachelor farmer, he was seventy when he died at the house where he was born and where he had  lived his life. His funeral …