243786 Capt. Eric Oakley Herbert Porter British Army from:New Milton Eric Porter was my father. He was born in 1908 and died in 1970.
He volunteered and joined the army in 1939 but did not see active service in the fighting as he had contracted a duodenal ulcer. He spent a large part of the war looking after POWs at the camp in Mardy, initially Italian soldiers and latterly German.
He resided with me and my mother billeted in a farm house belonging to the Evans family next to the camp. I have memories of crossing over a small fence from there and going into the camp when it was occupied by the Italian POWs and recall talking to an Italian soldier called Grinisi, this was probably in early 1944. At this stage the Italians were no longer belligerents.
My father continued looking after POWs at the end of the war and was posted to a Reception Camp (64 if I recall correctly) in Kuala Lumpar for the Japanese soldiers after the surrender. For a while families were not allowed to accompany serving soldiers but this was relaxed in 1946 and I and my mother sailed to Malaya in the Britannic and stayed there until the time of Indian independence. Schooling was carried out by the Army Education Corps and my teacher (who taught me to read) was a Sergeant Judge. We returned to the UK on the Georgic and were lucky enough to dock at Bombay over the few days that India got its independence.
My father was demobbed on his return to the UK and continued his prewar career as a banker with National Bank of Egypt.
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