大象传媒

My father, Jim, left Wakefield, Yorkshire on the morning of 10-1-1938 to join the Coldstream Guards. His family knew nothing of his departure until the local Railway Station Master sent a message to his father to collect 'young Jimmys' bike from the station since it was cluttering the platform. A letter was attached, from the 19 year old Jimmy, explaining to his father that he did not want to continue as a coal miner and was going to instead follow his dream for adventure!!

Dad has told many stories about his time as a Guardsman on guard duty at Buckingham Palace in 1938.
He was later posted to Palastine and set off on 23-12-38, aged just 20 years old. I understand that he was in the 8th Army: No1 Company; 3rd Battallian Coldstream Guards: 'a Desert Rat'.

The attatched Company Photo and pictures of pre-war happy times, in 1939, are 3 of many that he has kept.

But his adventure was to turn into a nightmare as he became caught up in WW2.
He speaks little of his time in WW2 but we know he suffered. I remember him crying out in his sleep, as nightmares gripped him, even in the mid to late 1950's!

It is only in later years that he has told a few stories to my brothers and I.
He becomes visably upset even now as he tells me about his time at El Alamein, Tobruk, etc.

He has told me about the cries of his comrades in the heat of the desert sand as they were being attacked and killed by scorpians. Apparently if they stood up they were shot at by the enemy; if they stayed lying in the sand they risked the scorpians, etc. On one occasion they were ordered forwards fighting and he had to jump over one of his friends who was lying dead in the sand with scorpians crawling out of his mouth. Dad's distress at this still haunts him.

He also told me that he and his comrades were ordered to dig trenches at one point. It was hard, swealtering work and they did not know at that time how important this would become, because later in the conflict when they were driven back by the enemy, they fell upon these very trenches and their lives were saved. This was where they, the 8th Army, were able to make their stand. (This may have been at El Alamein if I am remembering his story well.) Dad seemed to indicate that if they had not found these trenches they would not have survived the conflict.

My brothers and I have not pressed dad to speak further of the war but we do know from our mother that dad returned to England in 1943 or 1944 and may have been one of only a few to return who went out with him.

The army put him to work in the fields, in October, potato picking, to 'harden him up' to the cold English weather! THIS almost killed him however as he developed Double Pneumonia and took months to recover!!
Even when he married our mother in March 1945 he still looked gaunt with sunken cheeks and looked very thin and pale.

(Dad had been introduced to mam, by letter, by her brother, Tom Simpson, who was with my dad in the Coldstream Guards in Palestine. My parents wrote to each other regularly throughout the war while Dad was away and they became engaged without even meeting.)

Dad has lived a quiet life since the end of the war. He never went far from home after he married and settled in the North East of England. He went back to work as a Coal Miner. He did not have a remarkable life and he preferred to keep to his hobbies of art, woodwork and model making. Mam used to call him boring. But dad told me once, about 6 years ago, before his Dementia illness set in, that he did not want any excitement again after the war. He wanted to be safe and settled and quiet. His dream of adventure was cut down by war. His youth was taken from him! Now at 86 years of age he is a widower and is cared for in a Residential Care Home. His memory is poor and he lacks insight. I find that he can remember the war years more clearly than the latter years and he can get quite upset at times. It is all coming back to him as stark as it was then!

Even through all this however he has always had, throughout his life, his pride of being a Coldstream Guard. He still stands tall and smart and all who know him can tell that he was a guardsman. He has 5 Medals which are his pride.
We should all be so proud of our fathers and mothers who gave us our freedom. I will never forget and I make sure that my children won't forget either.

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