As I got to him he said, 'Shoot me' he was beyond all human aid

I have considered for sometime about anything that has touched me deeper for a reason to wear a poppy today, there is nothing:

At Pickham Ridge I can still see the bewilderment and fear on the men's faces when we went over the top. C and D Company was support, A and B had had to go front line. All over the battlefield the wounded were lying down, English and German asking for help. We weren't like the Good Samaritan in the Bible, we were the robbers who passed by and left them. You couldn't help them. I came across a Cornishman, ripped from shoulder to waist with shrapnel, his stomach on the ground beside him in a pool of blood. As I got to him he said, 'Shoot me,' he was beyond all human aid. Before we could even draw a revolver he had died. He just said 'Mother.' I will never forget it.

Private Harry Patch
Forgotten Voices Of The Great War