171843 Henry John "Dicky" Bird Royal Navy HMS Warspite from:London My step-father Henry Bird, joined the Royal Navy in 1939 at sixteen years of age. He eventually served as a stoker. I remember him talking of Salerno and D-Day. Later he served out East and met former prisoners of the Japanese.
He was a good story teller, certainly the pride of being part of Britain's armed forces came across. Yet he did not glamorise anything. He included the tears, the prayers and the terror. He told it in the style of the rough working man that he was and polished it with the wisdom of having survived to grow older.
My step-father was a very tough man. Raised in the east-end, he did his share of boxing as well as war service. The fact that thirty years later he could still cry out in his sleep taught me much about people and war. Henry "Harry" Bird died in 1972.
|