大象传媒

I am Elain Watkins and the man I am writing about is my Grandfather. As a small child I was very aware he fought in the second world war. He told me a few things about the war which I can relate here. He sadly passed away in may 1998 of Parkinson's disease. Before he died he was the chairman of the Burma Star Association in woking.
He told me that he was in the retreat of Dunkirk. I remember him telling me that he helped injured on to the boats and he left the dunkirk beaches on a fishing boat. When he got to Dover he got on a train to what he thought was tolarkhill,the train didn't stop, it kept going until it reached south Wales.He then had to get a train back to Larkhill.
My grandmother told me also that just before he went to fight in France that she went to see him.She got a train from London to Salisbury and then a taxi to Larkhill. all her friends couldn't believe that she got a taxi because of how much it cost. the distance is about 10miles. After Dunkirk my grandfather was then sent to madagascar for jungle training in preparation for the Burma campaign. He never told me much about the time he spent there, now i know more about it I can understand this. he returned from Burma late 1947. my Grandfather was a sergeant at the end of the war,he was offered a commission which he turned down. After the war he was a prominent member of the Burma Star Association. I think he was quite a character as he had a strong irish accent and was known as Paddy, he could also be quite stubborn and fix anything. he also wrote alot of poetry to my grandmother during the war. my mother has some of this as well as photographs of my grandparents before and during the war.

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