I think of Rememberance Sunday of my dad (he died young) and he always to used to go to the Cenotaph to remember fallen Comrades in WW2.
He was a Captain and a member of the Royal Artillery (A Desert Rat) and fought in the Eighth Army and the 1st Army. He was in North Africa, Sicily (where he got shot twice) and Iceland.
My father, like many soldiers, didn’t tell their families what they did or what happened. Though I wanted him to tell about this, I suppose l left it up to him. Now he is no longer here, the stories have remained with him. The ‘historian’ in me, wishes this was not the case. People need to know what happened. We learn from history after all.
Though, being the daughter of a WW2 veteran, I wasn’t taught at school about the war. Incredible really? I went to a convent school in Sundridge where it was more important to learn stuff about the old testament than stuff relating to history that our families can actually remember. So I have had to read up on the world wars from books, though to be honest, I prefer WW1.
My favourite WW1 book has to be ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, an incredible book. In WW1 my grandfather was a Major and I don’t know anything about what he did although I did get some medal records from the National Archives, it doesn’t say that much other that he earned it in France.
I just wish I knew more.
