大象传媒

Mr Norman Dawson aged 84.

Norman is still alive and well and lives with his wife in South Shields; this is his story, by his son in law, Peter.

20 years ago I left the North East to live near Brighton and every summer my in laws travel down to visit us, they still do. On the 5th visit, Norman asked me if Bognor Regis was close by and I said yes it is, but why would he want to go there? As it was a rather faded 1950鈥檚 seaside town, He replied, 鈥淚 鈥榙 like to see if Cherry Tree Cottage is still there鈥�.

Norman was a young apprenticed carpenter when the war broke out, and when he found out his best friend, who was a miner, had been allocated to a different unit he was distraught, both of them being only 19 years of age. Things cheered up at the railway station when he discovered many of his friends in the building trade had all been billeted together and would join the same unit the 鈥淩oyal Army Service Corp鈥� and be based in Chesterfield. Being part of the Transport division Norman had to drive a lorry and double de-clutch using the 2 feet long gear stick, perhaps that鈥檚 why he could never change to 3rd gear and subsequently drove all the way down to the south coast and never changed out of 2nd gear. His orders were to join the British expeditionary force that was preparing to sail over to France.

The retreat from Lille was chaos, and when Norman eventually arrived at Dunkirk; the beaches had already been evacuated. They were empty. He was left behind. He had to run.

The French resistance helped Norman. Resting by day and travelling by night, 2 weeks later he found himself at St Malo, and picked up a boat that would cross the channel. One morning he was dropped off at Bognor Regis tired, but happy, and he rested for a little while at Cherry Tree cottage.

Norman told me this story when we drove over there that day, he had never mentioned anything at all regarding the second world war for all the years I鈥檇 known him. Naturally he was more interested in Newcastle United, his family, friends, ballroom dancing and a pint of Fed. Having listened to him he would tell me other stories. I am even to this day amazed what these people did before they were 24 years old. Norman subsequently served in North Africa travelling by cargo ship via the East coast of US, to avoid the German submarine wolf packs, Cape Town, Durban and Palestine. He also told me that he had to drive over to Baghdad and it was so boring they used to put a stick on the accelerator of one of the lorries and jump over to the other one and ride side saddle so they could have a smoke and a chat. After which he transferred over to Sicily and Italy.

Eventually D-day came and Norman once again found himself in France, and later entered Berlin. He tells me though his most harrowing time was when he was part of the unit that liberated Belsin concentration camp. After attending some of the war crime trials where he received free tickets, he made it back home to find his girlfriend hadn鈥檛 thrown herself at a handsome Canadian and on Boxing Day they were married.

After returning home to Newcastle in 1945 Norman, has never left British shores again or wanted to go abroad for a holiday, nor has he ever driven a car, since he left his old lorry behind.

Today he is a well-loved grandparent, who possesses an immense charm, humour, and humility and has always shown great compassion that is very rarely encountered. Perhaps you had to be ther

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