Cpt. Denys Gray Meakin
British Armsy Staffordshire Yeomanry
from:Walton Rise, Stone, Staffordshire
Denys Meakin was my uncle, and joined the Staffordshire Yeomanry in about 1938 as a Territorial lieutenant. He saw service in Palestine and subsequently in Egypt at Mersa Matruh.
He was then part of the ill-fated British force sent to Greece in 1941, which soon had to be re-evacuated from the Peloponnese. Unfortunately, the evacuation was not total, and Denys was amongst those captured. He was transported in cattle trucks up through Yugoslavia and Austria, and ended up in Oflag VIIB. I have a number of Kriegsgefangenenpost letters written by him to his brother Rodney (my father), who was a captain in the Royal Engineers. The letters are carefully written in pencil and show a mixture of weariness, resignation and occasionally a sort of grim humour.
His health was not strong, and deteriorated to the point that in January 1945 he was repatriated to the UK via Switzerland. He found it very hard to settle down to normal life after the War, and indeed never worked again; nor did he marry. He did, however, find a sort of contentment in retired seclusion as time went by; and I remember him as a kind, sensitive man who might have had much to offer society had history turned out differently.
