大象传媒

During the War this was the day that everyone who had a member of their family in the Armed Forces dreaded.

That day came to our family on October 26th 1941 when I was 15 years old, and that was the day when I grew up It was 6days before my sixteenth birthday.

It was a crisp bright autumn day and I was coming home from school. Walking down the lane to go home was rather like going down a tunnel, the hedges on either side were overgrown and high. Suddenly I was compelled to stand still and listen. Everything around me went very quiet and I felt almost as if I were enclosed in a transparent dome and I saw my Mother sitting in her chair, her face in an agony of grief with a paper in her hand, and I knew at once what that paper was.

I ran all the rest of the way home, and when I got there, the shop door was locked and the blind was down. After hammering on the door a neighbour let me in. I ran into the living room, and asked, "which one is it?" and somebody said that it was Arthur.

I saw my Father weeping. I did not realise that men could weep. Nothing in my life before had prepared me for this sorrow My Father's silent weeping shocked me into thinking that I must not weep, in case it made it worse for my parents, and it was quite some days before my tears came too. Nobody ever asked me how I knew that the telegram had come, and I never told anyone that I had "seen" it before I got home
All of my three older brothers had volunteered for the Armed Forces before the War was declared, and this was the day my Mother had dreaded.

The telegram said "We regret to inform you that your son Sgt, Arthur Stringer is missing believed killed" We all held on to the slender faint hope that Arthur had somehow managed to survive a crash and would be found safe.

The last time he had been on leave he had shown us that in case their plane was shot down one of his uniform buttons unscrewed to reveal a compass. He had a silk handkerchief on which was printed a map of Northern France. Down the seam of his uniform trousers was a fine but very strong and flexible metal saw. He also said that they had been told how to contact the French Resistance who would help them to escape across the border into Spain. "So you see Mother you have no need to worry if I get half a chance I will get home again. Knowing him I am quite sure that he would have too

And yet, he must have known just how little chance there was. The day before he went back from his leave, he was looking at a group photograph of about 24 R.A.F boys who had been on the Wireless/Operator course with him. He had a very sad and thoughtful expression on his face, and Mother asked him why he was looking at it. He said "I'm the last one of these left on active service, they've all gone, I'm overdue it's my turn next." He caught the earliest train back to his base on Thorney Island in Hampshire so that he would have a good night's sleep before his next "op".
Two days late he and all the crew of the Lockheed-Hudson of Coastal Command were shot down over Cherbourg, after a mission to bomb German Battleships in the harbour there The realisation that never again would we see him was very hard to bear. He was truly "tall dark and handsome, full of life, loved sport of all kinds. All through my childhood, although he could tease me sometimes until I was nearly demented, no one else was allowed to tease or harm me in any way He was the youngest of my three big brothers. He was 21 years old, and now I am I suppose an old woman, but I think of him every day.

A few weeks later we received confirmation that Arthur had indeed been killed. Sometime before this, my eldest brother Ralph had been on embarkation leave prior to being sent overseas, In those days very few people had a telephone in their homes and all communication was done by post, which incidentally was very reliable and efficient. Geoffrey my middle brother was in the Army and he too got leave and it was the only time that all three brothers were on leave together. Arthur had a wound on his right thigh which required dressing. He told Mother and I that a cat in the Mess had jumped up and it's claws had gone through his trousers and the scratch had become infected. As it was a deep round wound surrounded by much angry looking bruising it was obvious that it was a bullet wound, He then admitted that he had been shot in a "dog-fight", and had climbed out of a Hospital window so that he could come home to see his brothers. He must have known it would be his last chance to see them, What a blessing that they had their photographs taken. It was a Sunday morning and they banged on the photographer's door until he opened up to take it. That picture is very precious and I have it still. I often wish that the wound in Arthur's leg had been worse, and then he would have been "grounded", but as it was "only" a flesh wound he was back on operational flights as soon as it was healed,
And then the Telegram came
Arthur is buried in Cherbourg Civil Cemetery in the section cared for by The Imperial War Graves Commission. His grave overlooks the harbour facing towards England, and on the headstone are engraved the words that my Mother was allowed to choose by the Commission, words composed by Robert Louis Stevenson for his son's grave:
"Yet oh stricken heart remember, oh remember
How of human days he lived the better part鈥�.
The four members of the Aircrew are all together in death as in life. The Pilot Ft Lt Buchan was born after his Father was killed in the First World War.

That was not the end of the sorrow to come to our family on May 28th 1942 the second telegram came to inform us that L/Cpl Ralph Stringer had been killed in action in North Africa on May 27th. This time there was no hope at all. The wording was quite definite The date was also the date of my parents wedding anniversary, so that never again was that celebrated. Ralph was the most handsome of my brothers, He loved to play the piano for me as a little girl so that I could dance, and he always said that he would take me to my first dance. He was a very good ballroom dancer. For two consecutive years he won the Tennis Cup at the club, and he was going to enroll me into the club too. The last letter that I received from him, in his beautiful handwriting, contained five pressed wild flowers and two little butterflies. There had been a sudden and very rare shower of rain in the desert and within days these few flowers had bloomed. Knowing how much I loved wild flowers, and all things to do with the countryside. He had taken the trouble to do this for me in the middle of the war in the desert I have that letter still and it is one of my most precious possessions

We later found out after the war when one of his friends Jim, who had survived very bravely came to see my Mother. Ralph and his Patrol had been surprised by a German Patrol and outnumbered. Jim had been sent back to get the rations and so saw the action from a distance They were lined up to be taken prisoner, but Ralph and the Sergeant who were in charge of the maps and papers made a dash to try to destroy them. One of the Germans threw a hand grenade and they were killed instantly. Jim told my parents that after the Germans had gone they came out of hiding and buried them. But Ralph has no known grave. His name is on the Memorial at El Adem near Tobruk

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