大象传媒

This is what my father Jack Doney told me.

He joined the territorials in Exeter before the war. It was by chance that he joined the Royal Signals.

He was called up at the beginning of the war and was sent to Belgium and France early in the war. At that time it was reported that there were no territorials being sent to the continent, but this was not true. He was already there. To start with the regulars gave the territorials a hard time, thinking they were amateurs. They had to prove themselves before they were accepted.

As winter came on in 1939 he still had not been issued with an army overcoat. Rumours that there were troops without overcoats were denied by the authorities. His mother sent him his civilian overcoat. When he wore this on parade he was shouted at and ordered to spend the day sweeping up leaves.

In February 1940 he had a week's home leave. He wrote to his fiancee, Marjorie Foster, telling her he was coming home on the 23rd February and to arrange the wedding for the 24th. Right up to the last day she was not sure he would be there. He did get there and they had a week's honeymoon in Torquay before he went back to France.

One day the men in his unit were about to have a cup of tea when a German bomb landed on the billy of tea, so they did not get their tea, much to their disappointment.

When the retreat to Dunkirk began, Jack and his fellow signalman were told to stay with their wireless station and await further orders. The rest of their unit left without them. People kept passing. Eventually a passing officer said: "What are you two doing there?" When they explained, he said: "Leave that - come on, come on."

As they went on it was all a complete shambles. Men were going in different directions. An officer called out: "This way, this way." They thought he was wrong. They carried on the way they were going. It turned out they were right and he was wrong. Jack got picked up by a destroyer. Bombs were falling all around.

Marjorie (my mother) told me that she could see the position of the troops in the newspapers. She was really worried. She said to her colleagues at work: "they're surrounded!" The people at work made light of it. Then Jack phoned to say he was in England. She told them at work: "Jack's in England." They were all so pleased and relieved - she realised then that "they had known all the time."

During the rest of the war, Jack spent over three years in the Middle East and a year in the Far East. Marjorie often commented that "he was away for six Christmases."

Jack had six campaign medals, but he said there was no medal for being at Dunkirk because it was a retreat.

Jack and Marjorie celebrated their diamond wedding in 2000. Marjorie died in 2001 and Jack in 2002.

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