大象传媒

Lewis Cocking returned from the war and settled into married life in Honley, Huddersfield. He never spoke to his three sons about his war time experiences.
But on Christmas Day 1967 Lewis talked for the first time about his time serving as a corporal gunner in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. And as the memories came back his eldest son Geoff had his tape recorder ready to preserve his father鈥檚 voice and memories for posterity.
Lewis didn鈥檛 talk about the sights that he would have witnessed on the battlefield on this recording. He spoke about how his time as a soldier was an education and how he learned a lot in a very little time.
Geoff discovered further information from his mother and found out that Lewis was wounded in Passchendaele and taken prisoner by the Germans. He escaped from a military hospital and was given shelter by a Belgium family. On repatriation he convalesced in a military hospital at Beckett Park, Leeds.
After the war he became a landscape gardener and met Ellen Hedley who he married and by whom he had three sons. They settled in Honley, Huddersfield.
He was in the Home Guard in World War Two, again as a Corporal. He died in 1970.

Location: 36 West Avenue, Honley, West Yorkshire HD9 6HF
Image: Lewis Cocking with his family, with thanks to his son Geoff Cocking (who is pictured on the left) and family
Presented by 大象传媒 reporter, Jane Chesworth