Pte. Cyril Henry West
British Army 1st Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment
from:15 Earls Road, Fareham, Hampshire
My dad, Cyril West, didn't talk much about the war, but I gleaned snippets from him at times and adding those to his Certificate of Service and other regimental records I have a rough idea of his service. He enlisted on 23rd of August 1937 at Portsmouth and spent his first year in the UK. He was deployed to India between December 1938 to June 1939 and I believe he would have been posted somewhere around Landi Kotal? He attributed this time to his love of very hot curries! From India he was sent to Malta where he spent three and a half years under the Luftwaffe siege. This was one part of the war that he did talk about, although he used to tell me about the clear waters around the island and how he learnt the hard way on how to pluck the hairy thorns from prickly pear cactus. When the siege was broken, he was sent to Egypt in March or April 1943 according to his Certificate of Service, but online Regiment records seem to suggest it was Tunisia? Any ideas on this would be gratefully received. Then on to Sicily and Italy, before being whisked back to Blighty for the Normandy Invasion.
I know very little about his days in North West Europe as he was injured around the end of July or start of August 1944 (I believe he would have been fighting in the general area around Hottot-les-Bagues and Villers-Bocage going by online records of the 1st's encounters) and would never discuss it. He was discharged on medical grounds in December 1944 and spent several years in rehabilitation for his wounds. He died at home in November 1991, but I still miss him dearly 27 years later!
