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• November 6th, 2008 - 9:24pmbrian dunt said...

  My maternal grandfather got to France aged 14.he was soon returned home! Returned to France later. Soon after a German shell exploded nearby, and buried him, dug out 24hrs later, hair had fallen out, never to grow again, his legs had the shakes for the rest of his life and his voice sounded like he had no roof to his mouth! He was never able to work in a normal job again, but spent his years as a yardman. In the following years his wife died at 35 leaving my mother to help bring up her older sister. Later, losing their home and all possessions in a German air-raid on the East End of London in WW2! My grandfather was evacuated to Braintree to the home of spinster in a two bedroom house (they later got married).

  Jump forward in time to the late 1950s and my grandfather received a letter from the bastards at the war office telling him that they felt that he did not DESERVE his pension of 12/6p per week as they noted that he did not attend the doctors frequently, and that they required him to attend a tribunal on the proviso of cutting his pension by 2/6p (12.1/2p) per week !! I do not know whether my father complained to the war office or the Braintree MP but it was never followed up, that was until my grandfather died in hospital when my mother was confronted by a doctor on one of her many visits to her father who demanded (without her knowing he had died) Do you feel your fathers war injuries contributed to his death? I live in Colchester where the parachute regiments are based, looking at the newspaper headlines regarding equipment, lack of kit, compensation etc. Has anything changed in the cold hearts of the MOD since 1918? Better perhaps to be a typist with the MOD with a bad finger, or an am I/or am I not, a lesbian trooper with the chance of a £400,000 approx payout for my injury or distress.

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