242689 Ernest Jones British Army West Yorkshire Regiment from:Manchester Ernest and his brother Stan were conscripted at the start of WWII and in 1940 found themselves in France with the troops who were forced to retreat quickly to be rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk.
Subsequently he spent time training in Knaresborough, West Yorkshire, where he met his wife-to-be, Joyce. He also trained in Norfolk before deployment in Belgium, Holland and Germany in 1944. During his time there, one of his unpleasant duties was to supervise reburials from mass graves.
After the War he talked little of his experiences but in later life he became a member and local branch secretary of the Bolton branch of the Dunkirk Veterans Association. That resulted in him visiting Dunkirk in 1990 as a guest of the French people to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the event.
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