大象传媒

William Patrick Hawkes was born on the 17th of April 1916. He lived in Darlington until ill health made the move to a care home neccessary. He then lived in Brandon until sadly, he passed away in 2003.

Bill left behind him this vivid memory, written by his grandson Luke when Luke was about eight years old, circa 1996.

This is clearly a very powerful memory of a loved Grandad, and war-time tales shared with a little Grandson.

A Special Person

My special person is my granddad because when I was about 6 years old he used to tell me funny stories like when he said that he was playing on a piano then all of a sudden a bomb came crashing through the roof and blew the piano to bits and blew me granddad fifty yards off his feet.
He told me a story about a German plane dropping over the town. It flew over my granddad's house and then he could hear the bullets flying through the air then three other German planes came over to try to blast the airport to smithereens so the England could not bomb them and destroy their airbase and battle cruisers and battleships.
So the Germans built a gigantic warship called the BISMARK and the English built one called the H.M.S. HOOD. It was the same size as the Bismark, and my granddad kept hugging me and telling me the story about the HOOD and the BISMARK.
My Granddad was on a little battle cruiser at the time when out of the distance came a huge ship called the BISMARK and it sunk the HOOD in one shot, and my Granddad saw it all, then the little ships cornered it and destroyed it.
My Granddad had a friend in the army called Tom. He was shot down by an aircraft carrier over the sea, but my Granddad did kill some people.
My Granddad is kind, doesn't lie and is generous and a good old man.

This, Luke's account of his memories of his Granddad shows how much he enjoyed the 'tale-sharing' times that he and his Granddad shared.

It is easy to picture an old man with a youngster sitting close, maybe even on a knee while these memories were transmitted. Thank you Luke for writing them down for all of us to share.

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