Wartime bravery of a Desert Rat
Paul Garside with some of his research literature
THE miners’ strike of 1984 was a troubling time for many a pitman.
Paul Garside was one of them. He joined thousands of other colleagues in the battle to protect his way of life.
Away from the picket line, there were periods of twiddling thumbs.
And Paul admitted: “I had that much time on my hands, I had to find something to do.”
But Paul found a way to put the long days and nights to good use.
He began researching his family tree and 28 years later, he is still studying.
“I began reading and going to the library. I knew some of the stories about my family, but I wanted to find out more,” said Paul.
Family Roots caught up with the former Horden Colliery face-worker, now of Essex Place, in Peterlee.
He is the son of John Garside and Joan Crozier, and his grandfather Joseph served in the Royal Artillery with the 8th Army – the Desert Rats.
It was Joseph who provided Paul with the first of his many wonderful stories.
It all starts in the dark days of the late 1930s. Hitler’s forces were growing in power and war seemed inevitable.
Paul, now 55, said: “My grandfather, his wife Doris and their two daughters (my mother Joan and her sister Doreen), sailed with the regiment to India on a troopship from Southampton only two days before the declaration of war with Germany, in 1939.”
They found themselves stationed at Rankarhet, in India, but Britain’s troops were needed on the frontline.
Joseph and his fellow soldiers were soon ordered into action in North Africa.
“He was forced to leave his wife and children behind in India,” said Paul.
Any hopes that Joseph had of writing constant letters to his beloved family were dashed. It was wartime and there were no stamps.
A brief postcard, posted from somewhere in the desert was all he could manage.
“This small instance shows the effect of the Second World War on families,” said Paul.
As the war escalated, Japanese troops invaded Burma and reached perilously close to the place where Doris and her two young daughters were living.
Paul said: “At one time, they were only six miles from the Japanese when they were evacuated home thanks to the Royal Navy.”
The journey back to Blighty on board a Navy ship proved to be an interesting affair.
Paul said: “They sailed through the Suez Canal and picked up Italian prisoners of war. My mother would often recall the beautiful sounds of the Italian prisoners who sang on the journey.”
Still, though, Joseph could not get back to the wife and children he loved.
His time was taken up with fighting the enemy. It was a fight he excelled in – a fight in which his astonishing bravery came shining through.
Paul explained: “He was badly burned and injured when an enemy dive bomber attacked his vehicle.
“During the attack, he tried to rescue some younger lads from a burning armoured vehicle.
“His arms were severely burned.
“I recall as a youngster seeing a Popeye tattoo he had on his arm. It was badly disfigured as a result.”
Yet Joseph survived the war and stayed on in the Army afterwards.
He served during the Mau Mau Uprising, in Kenya, in the 1950s and Paul added: “He was scarred with a machete when he was protecting an officer on a parade ground from an attack by a number of rebels.”
It was bravery of the highest order and Joseph won a gallantry medal because of it.
Joseph lived to the ripe age of 85 before passing on in the University Hospital of Hartlepool in January 1992.
His wife died aged 69 at Ryhope in 1974.
Joan died in 1999 at the age of 69 and Doreen died in 2006, aged 76.
Paul’s dad passed away aged 77 in 2006 after a life in which he had played a part as a rescuer in the Easington Mining Disaster of 1951.
Paul himself never went back to work at Horden pit. He took his redundancy money and first worked on building sites as a lorry driver and pipelayer.
Now, he is a a long-distance HGV driver.
Through it all, genealogy has remained a driving force.
Paul added: “I did a lot of researching and it really does become obsessive. I have travelled the country doing a lot of research and you do get hooked.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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