The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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259344 Sgt. Thomas Houlton British Army 10th Btn. Highland Light Infantry from:Nottingham   Thomas Houlton was my grandfather and a Sergeant in the 10th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry. Some of my fondest memories as a child growing up in the 80s, as part of what I reckon is the last generation of little boys that still dressed up as soldiers and ran around the streets playing army with toy rifles, are those of listening to his tales of his time in service during World War 2. Looking back now the realisation is that I never heard him tell a story that didn't end in a laugh; there were never any harsh details of battles, lives lost and other awful realities of war; all the anecdotes involved the times with his pals and usually ended up with one of them doing something clumsy with their rifle, misjudging a ditch, banging their head on something etc which to a four/five year old was hilarious. It was only ever about the time spent with friends and in retrospect it just shows that for certain audiences you need to find the good in every situation. Now I'm older of course and know where he was, what he took part in and the things he would have seen. He passed away in 1990 when I was 10, having had three boys with his wife Edith, and then later on his grandchildren. My overriding memory will always be of his big winning grin. I'm his namesake, and my daughter is named after his beloved Edith.   Thomas Houlton is 2nd Row, 3rd from left Gallant service award Thomas Houlton Add to this record.  Related Content: 10th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry 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.