大象传媒

Albert Winstanley had a secret while he was in North Africa, serving in the biggest military hospital of that campaign - he fell in love with a nurse.
"We had to keep it a secret," said Albert.
"I was a sergeant and she was an officer!"

Love blossomed in the heat of a fierce campaign and Albert and nurse Kathleen were married in Bolton after the war.
In mid-November 1942, three-and-a-half weeks after leaving Sussex, Albert Winstanley landed on a beach in Algeria and began setting up a hospital in a town called Benni Mesous.

Albert stayed at the hospital during and after the invasion of Italy.

One of the nurses who took part in the landings in Sicily and Italy was struck down by malaria while in Italy.
She was shipped back to Albert's hospital.
"What can I say?
We fell in love," said Albert.
"We had to keep it a secret - she outranked me!"

The couple married after the war and were together until Kathleen died in 1997.

Among his duties, Albert was in charge of burials.
"Being called to go and collect the tags from all these dead young men - often picking up arms and legs and matching them to the rest of the body, ascertaining if their death was natural or through act of war - it had to be done.
"Then I had to record all the details loved ones needed to know and, even in the middle of a campaign, war pensions had to be thought of.
I arranged the funeral. "At first, we buried them wrapped in a blanket, but the Arabs used to dig them up to steal the blankets.
"That stopped when I got the engineers to make wooden coffins. The Arabs didn't seem to want wood.
"I joined up in 1939.
I wanted to go. It sounds a bit trite now, but I wanted to do my bit," said the 87-year-old.

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