Hartlepool Dunkirk veteran's story told in new book about The Seaforth Highlanders
The experiences of a Hartlepool Second World War veteran captured at Dunkirk has proved the inspiration for a new book.
Eric Priest, from West Hartlepool, features in The Seaforth Highlanders: Aiding the King, 1881-1961 by military historian Paul Chrystal.
Paul has a personal connection to Eric, being his nephew, and was inspired to write the book after Eric’s granddaughters presented Paul with a suitcase full of personal letters, photographs, postcards and telegrams.
"I thought ‘there’s certainly a book there’”, said Paul, 70, who has written approximately 200 books since he retired.
He added: "There’s stuff from his time in India which is quite interesting.
"It’s all first-hand material that’s never been seen outside the family.”
Eric served in the Seaforth Highlanders, a line infantry regiment, from 1925 to 1945 including on the North West Frontier in India, and later in the Battle of France at Dunkirk early in the Second World War.
Paul said: “He wasn’t fortunate enough to be one of the thousands of troops that were lifted from the beaches.
"His regiment was further west at St Valery-en-Caux. Their job was to try to hold off the German tank regiments from getting to the evacuation beaches at Dunkirk.
"The Germans surrounded them and over a thousand men were taken prisoner.”
Eric, a father of two married to Florence, who lived in Weldeck Road, Hartlepool, spent the rest of the war in a German prisoner of war camp when he was forced to work in mines.
It left him with a damaged spine and chest conditions for the rest of his life. He died in the early 1980s.
Paul, of York, added: “It’s quite a tragic story. I can remember going to visit him in Hartlepool.
"He didn’t talk about it very much. Like many of his comrades it was something, by and large, they kept to themselves.”
Paul’s book is also a comprehensive history of the Seaforth Highlanders from its formation in the 19th Century to its amalgamation into the Queen’s Own Highlanders in 1961.
Between the first and second world wars, they were involved in ‘colonial policing’ on the Northwest Frontier, Palestine and elsewhere.
The Seaforth Highlanders, published by Pen & Sword, is out now with a recommended retail price of £29.99. It is also available on Kindle for £14.99.