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This contribution to WW2 People's War was received by the Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Norfolk. The story has been written by Francis Coxeter on behalf of his mother Mrs. Frances Betty Coxeter and has been added to the site with his permission. He fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

Jaw Jaw, not War War

We were married in 1940, when I was 31, my husband 34. He was wanting to volunteer, but was called up in November 1940 before he did so. After about six months at Sandhurst he joined the Queen's Bays in June 1941. Meanwhile, I had given birth to my oldest child. Christopher. Only a month or so later, whilst on training manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain, my husband suffered a nasty injury. The lid of his tank, not properly secured, bounced up and hit his head resulting in three fractures to his jaw. After being extricated with no little difficulty, from the tank, he was taken to hospital at Tidworth, then later moved to Park Prewett Hospital who specialised this this kind of injury under Sir Archibald Mc Indoe.

Having been living at my parents house in Salle, Norfolk, where my eldest son was born in February 1941. I decided, rather against my mother's wishes, to move down to my in-laws to be nearer to my husband during his recuperation. They lived at Frilford Heath near Oxford, and because my father-in - law was a garage proprietor, he was able to get petrol and take me to visit the hospital. My husband's jaw was wired shut and he seemed to exist mainly on a diet of Cocas! On some occasions, I was able to put up at the home of the hospital head gardener, and his wife kindly looked after my baby whilst I sat with my husband.

At first , he was very poorly and obviously unable to speak, but over the next few months he recovered and was well enough to be discharged by Christmas. After home leave at the beginning of 1942, my husband was called to a Selection Board in April and was offered discharge on medical grounds. However he chose to stay in service and for the rest of the war, served on a Selection Board himself, a job he very much enjoyed.

Hand it not been for the injury, it is very likely my husband would have seen active service in the Mediterranean theatre where the Queen's Bays suffered heavy losses.

For my part having joined the ATS at the beginning of the war, I spent most of the was as a mother/wife. After being demobbed in November 1945 my husband resumed his career in the office equipment business, with Gestetner, rising to board room level. He retired in 1966 and spent much of his retirement playing golf until laid low by a stroke. In an echo of his wartime incapacity, he spent the fast few years of his life unable to speak. He died in 1988.

It took some years of persistance, but I succeeded in obtaining my husband's ( and my own) War Service Medals — but not until 1996.

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