大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Pennie Hedge, a volunteer from 大象传媒 London, on behalf of Bernard Lee and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Lee fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Well it goes back before the war. I was working in an insurance office that was at New Cross, and I was 20. I was in the Territorial Army. But there was also another young lad in that office, who was 18. Well this was the beginning of the war and I was called up only two days before war broke out, and I didn鈥檛 go back to the office until 6 陆 years later, of course. But the point was that this lad, Nobby Denton, and I used to go out together, socialising, dancing and that before the war and then of course off I went. I was in 214 Field Ambulance, which supported the 167 Infantry Brigade.

But there was a young lady in the office who used to keep in touch with both of us by letter. And I think it was in 1944, when I was in Northern Italy, I had a letter from her to say, 鈥測ou鈥檒l be surprised that Nobby is somewhere near to you in Italy.鈥� I hadn鈥檛 seen him since before the war, but to my surprise, three or four days later he turned up in my office. And my 鈥榦ffice鈥� was a three ton lorry converted. He turned up and we had a grand reunion.

But unfortunately, three or four days later I was due to go on a week鈥檚 holiday to Rome. So I went off to Rome, and I said to Nobby 鈥� he was in the artillary near to us 鈥� 鈥淚鈥檓 only away for a week, do come and see me at the end of the week, and we鈥檒l carry on where we left off.鈥�

Well, he didn鈥檛 turn up, but a week after I got back I got a letter from Betty Bavrege saying 鈥淒id you know Nobby had been killed in Italy?鈥� Now being in a field ambulance, because we were on the move all the time, following the infantry, if people died, all we could ever do was dig a hole in the ground, wrap them in a blanket, put a cross up and keep a record of where they were. And the War Graves Commission always came along afterwards and lifted the bodies and took them to a military cemetary. The extraordinary thing is, when I heard Nobby had been killed, I looked in our admissions and discharge book, and found that he鈥檇 actually died in our dressing station while I鈥檇 been in Rome.

And I can remember standing beside this little mound of earth in Italy with our Roman Catholic Padre, who conducted a little service, although Nobby wasn鈥檛 a Roman Catholic. The two of us were standing there, looking at this mound of earth and I found myself thinking of Rupert Brooke鈥檚 poem 鈥淭here is a corner of a foreign field that is forever England.鈥� And I thought, Nobby, here you are, in a hole in the ground in Italy.

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