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This story was submitted by Alison Tebbutt, Derby CSV Action Desk, on behalf of Paul Woodward. The author has given his permission and fully understands the site's terms and conditions

On the 24th April 1943 my father Laurence Woodward (Lol), who was serving with the Royal Engineers-271 Field Company as a Sapper and my Uncle Jack Brassington serving with the Derbyshire Yeomanry had a ‘million to one meeting’ in the North African Desert at Goubalet near Medjez El Bub.

In a letter to my mother, my uncle wrote;

‘Have I got a surprise for you, same as I had. I met Lol yesterday. What a grand meeting, a chance in a million. It just shows you God is good to those who deserve it.
Well Lol is fit and well. He was not in tropical kit same as me. Well, we were in the ruins of a farm yard about to have dinner which I cooked (broad beans, steak and kidney pie and rice and date pudding), when some Royal Engineers pulled up and before I knew anything I was shouting Lol at the top of my voice. The lads thought I had gone mad. You can understand my feelings. He had dinner with us and stayed about three hours. They had been clearing mines, had got off the track and made for the farm house hoping to meet someone to put them right. We should have moved out the previous night, but it was cancelled at the last minute, so it was providence we were to meet.’

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