- Contributed by听
- Old Whittington Library, Chesterfield
- Location of story:听
- Derbyshire
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A4123289
- Contributed on:听
- 27 May 2005
In September 1933 I joined the regular army, the York & Lancaster Regiment. I had to do 6 months training in Pontefract until February 1934. In September of the same year I was stationed in Portsmouth and not too long after that I set sail to India on the HMT Neuralia. This journey took 3 weeks. During the trip, via the Suez Canal, a gentleman from another regiment was going to dive into the swimming pool, but the ship listed to one side and he fell into the sea and was killed by sharks.
When I arrived in India I was stationed in Ahmednagar but spent 4 years duty travelling around India. I took part in the Lucnow games playing cricket and running in the cross country. Unfortunately when I was running I got a huge thorn stuck in my ankle which went right to the bone.
From Bombay we sailed to Port Sudan in Egypt then up to Khartum. During my time in Egypt the Desert War started and we went up to Tobruk. Here we were closed in with enemy all around us. From Tobruk we sailed on a Destroyer back to Cairo. From Cairo we were shipped back to Bomabay in India and then by rail to Calcutta where we were trained for jungle warfare.
We arrived in Burma having come through the jungle near to the Irrawady River. Unfortunatley I contracted malaria and had to come home. My journey home was via Calcutta and Bombay, where I got on an American Tour Ship and toured around Australia stopping in Sydney. The journey then took us through the Panama Canal to New York. I stayed 2 weeks in New Rochelle and met the 'Ink Spots', George Raft and several other celebrities. After 2 weeks I came to Liverpool and then finally home to Derbyshire.
Then it was off to London. I was stationed at Empire Way for about 3 months and then moved to Dunmow in Essex. Norway was the next stop. We travelled by an RAF transport plane. There were no seats and we had to sit on our kitbags which was very uncomfortable. We arrived at Oslo in August 1943 and then on to Burgen. Our duty was to disarm the German units. The last leg of my journey was back to Hull.
War had now ended. I finally came home to Old Whittington and have lived here ever since.
I was married in April 1944. Last year we celebrated our Diamond Wedding Anniversary.
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