It was Pete’s funeral today and when the bugler struck up to play the Last Post there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. He then got played out to Vera Lynn “We’ll meet again.” At the crematorium they played “We do like to be beside the seaside” and everyone was singing, clapping and stamping their feet. I could just see Pete dancing around playing his bones.
Thoughts turn to another old soldier, Herbie, who died last year. He was in the Durham Light Infantry and was only four feet six. He was at D-Day on the Normandy beaches. He told me, when they beached the landing craft the beachmaster shouted “Everybody out! The water’s only five feet deep!” Herbie said “But I’m only four feet six!” Once he got on the beach he started running up it. He said that there were bombs and bullets and shells coming from everywhere. Despite being frightened, he carried on running up the beach until he found a foxhole to get in. He looked back behind him. There was no-one up with him, everyone was still at the water’s edge. “Wy ay man,” he said, “I was nearly a hero!”
I know what the war did to my family and others and have so much respect for what they all went through which is why I am organising a Help for Heroes Benefit night on the 23rd September.
