The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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212847 Henry Victor "Twink" Richardson Royal Marines Harry Richardson was my dad, and was aged only 14 yrs and 9 months when the Lancastria was hit. He passed me a piece of paper one day with writing on (SS Lancastria) and said one day I would understand it but at the time he was forbidden to speak about the circumstances. The only other thing I remember was the date, 17th June 1940, also my sisters birthday. We knew that at some point in the war Dad heard angels singing (he was drowning), he mentioned that often. According to other family members he was washed ashore and revived. When I think about this, he was just a boy, not an easy man to live with as a father, the war destroyed his legs (shrapnel), and tormented his mind. I am in the process of applying for his records, although because he was a Royal Marine Commando, I may have to wait a while. He served in Malaysia and Burma. He was also very artistic and would draw pictures for his mates to send home. I remember him mentioning that his unit had to line the steps to the building for the Japanese surrender. He would also sometimes have to be driver for Mountbatten (who liked the gin). I wonder if anyone remembers him? Annie Platt Add to this record.  Related Content: Royal Marines HMT Lancastria Burma & India Campaign 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.