After serving 7 years in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers my grandfather left the army in 1935. He was placed on the army reserve list.

Over the radio on 1st September 1939 all those on the reserve list were told to report to their regimental headquarters. He left Aberlour on Speyside in the early morning of Saturday 2nd September and by train travelled to Wales. War was declared the following day, Sunday 3rd September 1939.

By the 13th of September he was in France attached to the Pioneer Corps building railways, runways and supply depots to help transport soldiers, ammunition, equipment and food to the regiments at the front line.

When the Germans attacked on the 10th of May 1940 his unit was cut off and the soldiers were told that it was “every man for himself”. As they were unable to reach Dunkirk where thousands of soldiers escaped by ship to Britain he and two companions set off on foot through occupied France. Unfortunately when making their way through the city of Rouen one of his friends was shot.

France surrendered on the 22nd of June. After several adventures he and his companion reached the town of St.-Jean-De-Luz, a few miles from the Spanish border. They were lucky to get on board one of the last ships leaving the port. He arrived in Plymouth on the south coast of England dressed in shabby civilian clothes and women’s shoes.

He was then transferred to the Buffs (The Royal East Kent Regiment) and spent the next two years in Devon. It was expected that the Germans would try to invade Britain and so troops were positioned around the coast to defend all the most likely places where the Germans would try to land. Hitler however abandoned his plans to invade and turned his attention to an attack on Russia.

In 1942 he was sent to Kenya as a company Quartermaster Sergeant with the 11th East African Divisional Scouts. After 18 months training his unit was sent to Burma where he remained until the Japanese surrender. He was eventually discharged from the army on 25th January 1946. His brother who served in the India Reserve Company was killed in the Japanese attack on the Indian town of Kohima.