大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer on behalf of Pandora Varrakalion and has been added to the site with her permission. Pandora Varrakalion fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions

I come from a long line of military personnel. Many of my ancestors took part in every single one of the Crusades, several of them laying down their lives in the cause of Christian freedom. I have traced my ancestry back to a direct descendent of Emperor Charlemagne on my mother鈥檚 side and on my father鈥檚 side we go back to Roman times. One of our distant connections was Prausatagus, the husband of Boudicca. Like her we also fought the Roman invaders and told them in do uncertain terms that they were very unwelcome in the land of the Cealts. My eighth great grandfather was Alexis Nicholas Dionysus Varrakalion who was a freedom fighter when the Turks invaded Greece, about the time that Charles 1 was having trouble with Oliver Cromwell. He arrived in these islands asking for help and was granted permission by Charles 1 to remain. While visiting distant connections in Wales, he met and married Myfanwy. He could not speak Welsh, she could not speak Greek, but their 7 children were multi lingual. Many of them later went into merchant trading and tended to start a voyage single, and come back with a wife from abroad and a child on the way! This is how I have Italian, Polish and Russian ancestry.

My great Grandfather on mother鈥檚 side fought at Waterloo in the cavalry and his son, my grand father, was also a cavalry Major who saw action in many theatres of war. During the 1st World War he was in charge of troop movements, and later became a station master. On father鈥檚 side of the family I had an Uncle in the Gloucesters who fought at Gallipoli, with DC & Bar plus mentions in dispatches. My father was born in 1896 and followed his father down the pit. He was there during the 1st World War and therefore was unfit for military service, although he was on fire watch duty. My mother came to England in 1936 because she had been working for Jewish families and had been advised to leave Austria before the Nazis took over. During her time in London and the Isle of Man she was twice successful in un masking Nazi spy rings and as a result the Home Office was very pleased to allow her to stay.

She met my father in the course of her work at a Services Club for Officers in Kensignton in 1940 and they married in 1942; I arrived a week after D Day and at 6 weeks old I knew the alert from the all clear. I remember rationing quite well and my parents and myself were adopted by an American Naval Unit who became our great friends and we were very sorry when it was time for them to go home, but we kept in touch by letters.

My father died in 1950 before rationing finished, and it was very hard for my mother to raise me on her own as benefits which we now enjoy were not then in place for widowed mothers. I feel a contributory factor to my father鈥檚 death was the fact that he had to leave school at 10 and start work down in the pits to support the family as his father had been invalided out with Byssynosis, and had moved to Swansea where he drove trams and later became an inspector as well as assistant conductor of the Swansea & District Municipal Transport Male Voice Choir, as well as their treasurer. He died in 1936 and his wife who was a qualified District Nurse & Midwife died in 1940.

My other Grandfather died in 1938 and his second wife, my grandmother, died in 1984. Grandfather鈥檚 hobbies were nature study and breeding rabbits. He had 500 rabbits and 14 children. Eleven by his first wife and 3 by his second. My grandmother, Teresa, was a farmer鈥檚 daughter who became a nurse, and 2 of her brothers qualified as Doctors and another as a Vet. One brother later learnt to fly and moved to Australia where he joined the Flying Doctor Corps, dying in a plane crash. The other Doctor became a medical missionary in Africa and was posted first to South Africa where he married, and later to the Congo where he became lunch for a crocodile! However life does go on, and one of grandmother鈥檚 nephews later joined the Church and became a priest. I also had an uncle on mother鈥檚 side of the family who was on the Atlantic convoys serving on the Saratoga and later a frogman in the Med under the tutelage of Buster Crabbe. He also did some amateur boxing and had his nose broken by accident whilst sparring with Max Schmelling who was at the time the world champion. He died in 1994 and is buried in Orpington, not far from Biggin Hill.

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