大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War web site by a volunteer on behalf of Gilbert Colton and has been added to the site with his permission. He fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

鈥� AN IRISH VIEW 鈥︹��

My name is Gilbert Colton, the third son of Kathleen Sutherland and Tartan Colton, he had no proper Christian name, as his Grandmother just gave him the name Tartan. They built their home in Killeigh village, County Offlay. I was born in 1915, and brought up on the family farm. We were a large family as there were two girls, Violet and Janine, and the rest of us were boys, four of us, Irwin, Fred, myself Colton, and Frankie who died when he was only 4 or 5 years old. I went to the local primary school for 6 years before going on to the local Secondary School, Wilson鈥檚 Hospital, run by the Butler Family. My parents wanted me to go into the church, but I became a School Master at Boys Boarding School in Killkenny. It was run by the Incorporated Society. I did my teacher training at Trinity College in Dublin. I was 24 years old when the war broke out. We were of farming stock and some of us just wanted to get away. I had my teaching post. A first cousin of mine ran away to South Africa and worked in the mines. When the war started he joined the RAF for the duration of the war; he was away serving for the full five years or what ever it was. We were not much affected by the Germans, even though there was always the threat that they might invade Ireland. We were more or less treated as neutral. We had our own civil war. Even though I was not on the farm, the IRA regularly raided the farm. They would just turn up and demand breakfast for a morning and sometimes they would want shelter. Some times they would stay several days. My sisters were away from the farm and were more involved with the war. One was a Nurse on the mainland and in her spare time was in the ARP. The other was in Australia, married but spent the war on her own as her husband was called up away into the army.

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