It's sometimes surprising what you learn about your family well after the event.
My late sister held on to some of my Father's papers when he died, and rather belatedly, after a clear out, they have been passed on to me today.
In sitting and perusing them, I came across the following letter, written in a slightly uneducated hand (Cxxxxxx Dxxxxxx being my father):
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5. May 1946
The Chief Officer, xxxxxxxxxxxx Goods Station, L.N.E.R. xxxxxxxxx
Dear Sir,
I would be obliged if you could give me the address of Cxxxxxx Dxxxxxx, a former clerk at the above station some time in 1939, - or any information about him, if still well and living.
My reasons for this letter - Cxxxxxx Dxxxxxx had my boy (Axxxxxx Axxxxxx Junior) searched for and dug out after being buried completely by two German bombs at Estaires, between Lille and Merville, about the 22nd May, 1940.
Cxxxxxx also helped my boy to reach the beach at Dunkirk, and so to escape to England by the "Skipjack" vessel.
Axxxxxx Axxxxxx is alive and well at this day, thanks to Cxxxxxx Dxxxxxx and the grace of God.
Yours faithfully,
Mr A Axxxxxx (Snr)
97b xxxxxx Street
Bradford
Yorkshire
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My father had always been very quiet about his wartime experience in France, being part of the BEF, and being a late evacuee from Dunkirk. I knew he had had a hard winter, and had been bombed, but little else, and certainly not the above (though he was more expansive about his later, and easier, war experiences in Ceylon and Gibraltar).
In the same set of papers was his diary for 1940, where the entry for the date above simply reads:
"Bombed and buried in trench. Greatest shock ever. Never again I hope".
For such a letter to have been written 6 years after the event (and presumably because the war had been survived) brings home the effect of it all. (Incidentally, research shows the "Skipjack" was bombed the next day with the loss of the 275 evacuees then on board!)
My father was always a bit of a hero to me (for all sorts of reasons). Today, over 20 years since his death, he has me unexpectedly very proud of him again (and as you can tell, I needed to share ;-) )
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I haven't dealt with my Fathers possessions yet. He died in 1993. Not as heroic as your tale, but then, one is a person of their times. I am sure you are suitably proud. MD.
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Good to be proud of your Father. Good to be reminded.
No doubt he felt the same about you.
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... I like to think so.
My parents put a lot of effort into me and my sister, in less than ideal circumstances.
I began to realise that at about aged 20, and tried to return some of it.
I think it was appreciated.
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A fascinating story ...... it makes you want to know more. I wonder if Mr A A (Snr) managed to track your father down to thank him personally? I hope he did.
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...I don't think we'll ever know.
Patently the letter had been passed on to him (he returned to his pre-war employment, so that bit would have been easy), but whether any further contact was made, who knows?
I've little doubt that he only did what most (if not all) people would have done for their colleagues at the time; the main surprise to me was only finding out now (along with a bit more detail from his diary of just how bad his experiences in France were).
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Have you checked with the PRO whether he was awarded any "gongs" ? Every reason to be proud, the guys who held the line in 1940 were true heroes - especially the ones who held the line whilst the evacuation took place or those that died secretly (at the time) during the sinking of the Lancastrian and those that were sacrificed after Dunkirk for various reasons...and there were large numbers of them. I doff my hat to your father Sir.
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....on the other hand.....
The other story I think I remember him telling me is that when they reached the dunes, they asked the rearguard (Scots Guards?) where the evacuation point was.
On being told that it was a few miles away over the dunes, and that they might be better staying put and fighting with said rearguard, they said OK, but we'll just go up to the top of the dune and see what's happening - which they did, and promptly scarpered!
Pragmatic?
(You can see, however, why my view is changing somewhat)
Knowing my father, and acknowledging the fact that the occurrence would have been one of many such stories, I've little doubt that there was no report, and he wouldn't have coveted a "gong" anyway.
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Interesting stories, and I think with sufficient passage of time all flesh that can be put on the bare bones of a family pedigree is fascinating, the heroic and the discreditable.
I have done a lot of research into the many families on all sides that combined to produce me, and have occasionally been able to confirm, amplify or sometimes totally disprove lots of family legends.
I have only once come across a previously unknown actual physical artefact, and that was when I discovered that my painter grandfather had hidden a portrait of a young woman painted prior to his marriage to my grandmother underneath the canvas of a later painting.
I've no idea who she was, but stretching a new canvas over another is a cunning way of keeping but hiding it. Artists commonly paint over old pictures, or reverse the canvas and use the back, but this is more devious.
I discovered it when I was re-framing the upper picture, and found it a tight fit in a standard sized frame.
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Family Surprises - MD
