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This story has been submitted to the People’s War website by Anne Wareing of the Lancashire Home Guard on behalf of Roger Rawlinsom and has been added to the site with his permission…

When war began I had a shop in Crosby Liverpool. I was in a reserved occupation being a chemist. I studied at Manchester University, but had to take the practical exams in Edinburgh, due to the bombings in London.

I joined the Royal Medical Corp and went to Boyce barracks in Hampshire. In 1941 we sailed from Greenock via South Africa, to the Egyptian port of Tupie, as it was not possible at that time to sail through the Mediterranean

I was able to speak some Arabic, which helped when I was rescued in the desert after falling from the back of a Red Cross truck en route from Alemain to Libya. The Indian driver hadn’t seen me fall and I found myself alone with only what I stood up in. Luckily a desert traveler came by and I was able to greet him in Arabic. I then walked 40 miles before being finally rescued by South Africans at a Tarmac Company.

Whilst in the desert General Montgomery paid us a visit to inspect the injured troops, they included Gurkas, Welsh, Australians and New Zealanders. As he stepped down from the jeep, I saluted him and he returned the salute, then spoke to me, a proud moment.

During the 5 years I spent in the R.M.C. I went by train to Luxor, visited a gold mine on the Red Sea and was able to visit the holy sites during a 10day leave in Palestine.
A lot of this time I dined on bully beef and biscuits.

I still have many photographs of the people and places I knew during the war which I treasure

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