Pte. Frederick Frances Hynes
British Army 2nd Parachute Battalion Air Corp
from:Brighton, UK
My late father, Frank Hynes, was in the 2nd Parachute Battalion of the Army Air Corps. He came from a long line of professional army men, enlisting in the 4/7 Royal Dragoon Guards as a boy aged 14.
He served in North Africa and Italy and was captured at Arnhem where he received a gunshot wound to his left forearm. He was transferred Prisoner of War to Fallingbostel, Stalag 11B on 25th September, 1944 and was released on 23 April 1945.
He went home to Brighton, UK and worked in the Special Constabulary, a bar manager at the British Legion Club at Shoreham-by-Sea and as a diamond polisher in Brighton and London. He emigrated to Sydney, Australia at the age of 30 where he met and married my mother. He worked as a Plant Controller at the Shell Oil Refinery for many years, then as a Clerk of the Court. He died in 1978 of a stroke at the age of 56. I was 23 when he died, and had not talked to him in detail about his war service or time as a POW, I had no idea really until recently when I began to look at my family history and obtained his military records. I would love to know more if anyone has more information regarding his service.
