大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Luke, a pupil from Teversham Primary School on behalf of Melvin Buttress and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Buttress fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Mr Louis East, Mr Melvin Buttress uncle, went to war and joined the Royal Navy to fight for his country working on a small vessel called the Vimera. He was on watch. One night his ship was blown up by a mine. There were only a few survivors of which he was one of them. The sea was covered in oil and he was swallowing the dirty water with a severe leg injury. He was in the water for half an hour before he was rescued. When he was taken to hospital one doctor wanted to amputate his leg but another doctor decided to operate and save the leg. He was in hospital for months at Stoke Mandeville where he recovered. It seemed that every full moon he suffered very bad headaches and sickness which lasted a few days. He wore a special brace for his leg for years and had a bike where the pedal crank could be adjusted. This gave him some normality in his leg and he even managed to play a bit of cricket. Despite what happened he enjoyed the rest of his life and died at the age of 88.

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