h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Deborah,

Thanks for the reply.

I do intend to put some of my grandpa's memories on the site-my mother also thinks that it is a good idea. Some are pretty graphic however and I'm not sure how they would go down-will there be a vetting process?

We haven't got around to it as yet as my grandmother has been ill, she's better now so I'll mention it to my mum again-he told my mum much more than my GM-I don't think she wanted to comprehend some of the things he experienced-he told me certain 'funny' things like stealing potatoes through a broken window in the POW camp with a pointed stick and he skewered a german guard! He said he got solitary for that but it wasn't until I was much older that the 'solitary' was really lining up to be shot in front of the grave you'd dug and it was only an air-raid or some other miracle that saved you.

Unfortunately Grandpa died in 1988 but I'm sure if he'd been around now he would be the first to be writing down his 'funnier' memories, he did make several doomed escape bids which were quite hilarious, and watching the D-day programme although he had been a prisoner for 4 years by then.

He was in the Leicestershire regiment (the 'tigers'-not just our rugby team!!) and they were captured during the retreat from Dunkirk. He didn't get that far; they were left to defend the roads to the beaches etc. He said they sat in the road and waited to be taken.

I'n not sure where he ended up but I do know he was ill when they were liberated and was flown home in a Lancaster! This came in very useful later in life whilst enduring a 'know-it-all' bloke in a queue during an airshow telling everyone what he'd done in the war etc, he turned to my GP and asked him whether he'd flown this aircraft or that and totally deadpan my GP said "I did all my flying in Lancaster's" which was totally true and the only flight he'd taken in the whole of the war! it shut up the bloke and we still laugh about it now.

He was a great man and I miss him alot. Keep your eyes on the site and I'll do my best to get things posted.
If you want to discuss anything further my e-mail is:
[email protected]

Hope to speak to you soon

Chris.