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Well I got the whole lot, didn’t I. First evacuated to Worthington and then to Hertford, then in December 1940 I spent a year in Streatham before I was called up in ’43. Went into the Royal Artillery and then the 6th Airborne, where I was trained for D-Day. We were in gliders… didn’t you know that gliders carried heavy equipment. Then we went to France, Ranville which was the first liberated town/ Then back and forth to England , then sent again at the end of the war, it was to Burma but then along came VJ Day so they sent me to Palestine as a security officer, against the Irgun. Do you remember the King David Hotel being blown up? I was in Palestine for 2 years and enjoyed that going around much as I wanted with transport etc. That took me until December 1947.

Oh yes I spoke several languages, Arabic and French. Later on back home I went in for imports/exports.

These ribbons? They are stars for campaigns in France and Germany; they just mean you were there, not particular valour.

Every years I go back to the Pegasus Bridge but lost touch with anybody I knew. But visiting the museum there last year, I found a picture of my unit. And there was a picture of me/

The world wars affected my whole family, my father died in the first world war out on a patrol at night, my mother’s first husband was killed by a mule, but my mother was a very determined woman. She refused to go into the shelters because they were damp and it made her arthritis worse, so in the bombings she always took shelter under the table. Now I’ve go to go and meet the other veterans.

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