大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Worcester Library on behalf of Roy Hayward and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Hayward fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

On board the USAT Argentina we travelled first to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where a ship was on fire in the harbour, presumably as a result of the enemy air attack we encountered shortly before arriving there for refuelling.

During my service at 225 Group, Bangalore, the Mysore Government issued an invitation to RAF Personnel to visit Mysore City for the Dasara Festival. I entered my name on the list and spent a wonderful three days in tented accommodation near the Maharajah鈥檚 Palace. One evening a military band started to perform and, as if by magic, when the first note was struck, many coloured lights came on. The elephants went to the front of the Palace, where the Maharajah was seated on the balcony, and bowed their heads. We also visited the Krishnarajasagar Dam during our stay in Mysore.

During the whole of my RAF service I was fortunate in being able to attend a church every Sunday (unless I was on duty), but in Calcutta I attended St Paul鈥檚 Cathedral and Rangoon Cathedral when in that city. In Bangalore however, a remarkable occurrence took place after the service in St Andrews Church around March 1944. Every week after the service many servicemen gathered afterwards in the hall for refreshments and to get to know other people, including the local civilian population and church members. After I had got to know one couple in particular (Mr and Mrs Matthews), I began to take part in the handing out of tea and cakes, etc, before everyone later went to the back of the hall, where at a long table sandwiches and more tea were enjoyed every week. I have had eye trouble ever since birth and that Sunday as I was handing out the tea, I came to a Major Robertson, who noticed there was something wrong with my right eye and remarked on it and suggested something should be done about it. I replied that I had been given to understand that nothing could be done and that that was why I had to wear spectacles in order to correct, as far as possible, the turning in the eye. 鈥淥h! Nonsense,鈥� replied the Major. 鈥淕o and see your MO in the morning.鈥� I did so and on 1 April 1944 I was admitted to no 38 British General Hospital for an operation two days later. The condition was described as 鈥榙iplopia for distance鈥� (in other words, double vision) I was bandaged with cotton wool pads on both eyes for six days, so could see to do anything and had to be washed and fed by the orderlies, several of whom were Italian prisoners of war captured in North Africa by Australians. The bandages were removed and stitches taken out on Easter Monday and the operation was a success, although later I was to discover there was still a slight problem. On Easter Day I had arranged for the Chaplain to give me communion but of course, I could not see him and I had no breakfast, as in my usual routine before taking communion 鈥� and I was fortunate in that, throughout my service I was able and still am, to continue receiving Holy Communion on Easter Day, Whitsunday Day and Christmas Day, as well as on many other Sundays, every year.

Mr and Mrs Matthews and several others from St Andrew鈥檚 visited me in hospital and I learned that their elder son had married a Worcester girl by the name of Peggy Stephens. I wrote home and mentioned that and my sister Vera replied that she knew Peggy, as they were both in the same badminton club. Their younger son Ronald was training to be a doctor in Madras and was soon coming home to his parents on holiday. I had been invited to their home several times for a meal and they asked me to visit them again when Ronnie was home in order to meet him. I did so and we had the most enjoyable evening.
More than forty years later I discovered from an article in the Worcester evening News that Dr Ronald Matthews had died after serving over thirty years as a consultant surgeon at Worcester Royal Infirmary. I had no idea he had come to my home city from India, but I

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