The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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205049 Sgt. Philip Joseph Cowie British Army Queen Mary's Regiment Surrey Yeomanry from:Clapham A happy story! My late father wrote to his younger brother who was based in Taranto in the navy. He was due to pay a visit and, being an officer, was to be placed in officers' accomodation. He then wrote to say he could not come. My uncle, Richard Cowie, somewhat disappointed, approached his CO for permission to go up to Naples to see my father. He was given 3 days and was told it was up to him to get there himself. My uncle went to the nearby airfield, somehow dodged security, being a much smaller chap than my father. He went straight through to the CO of the airfield and asked if he could go on the next flight. He was told to report the next morning. The pilot was waiting to leave when my uncle approached and boarded. He was told by the pilot that he was awaiting a VIP. That VIP was my uncle! He flew up to Naples and the very next day found my father and they spent the day together. They decided to go into a photographer's shop and have a picture taken together. My father was about 6ft and my uncle more 5ft. "The bambino can stand on the box!" said the photographer. My uncle was barely 18! The resulting picture was made into a postcard and sent home to their mother in Clapham. We still have that postcard. As a momento of their meeting, my father went into a little shop and got a small box made up to contain cigarettes. On one side was painted the crest of Queen Mary's Regiment Surrey Yeomanry "Honi soit qui mal y pense." On the other side was painted the crest of the navy, "Post tenebras Lux." This was in 1944. We still have that box. A lovely memento of a meeting between two brothers of two different services. Gerard Cowie Add to this record.  Related Content: Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.