My Granddad was a legend to be very proud of
He obviously had a bit of problem with people into fascism, given he went off to Spain to fight them as one of the Brigadas Internacionales, prior to WW2. He was captured at one point and quite badly beaten up, but survived home to join in the army as an officer. He fought under Montgomery in North Africa, went on to fight in Italy, and ended up in Germany; where he fell in love with a German woman who's family had literally ran from the Red Army, he subsequently married.

I have all the medals he got from going through all of that, and photos with various generals around the house; but for shear pride I cannot knock what he put himself though as a young man. He was apparently the last Yorkshireman on those International Brigades, and was amazed at the complete strangers at his funeral. I am immensely proud of him.

Though, as a child, he would never let me play football in Bishops Park on a Sunday.

Still, a marvellous man
( Jahled Three shades of black, Fri 3 Jun 2011, 0:11, 1 reply)

It was
My greatest honour was to march alongside a veteran of the Spanish civil war, on the occasion of the Anti Iraq war demo.
Best of all, my daughter was there, too.
Other than that, astonishing story, it gets me that when you see an older person you just don't see what happened before they were old... if that makes sense?
(Beer Elf Thought this was like a campfire, anyhow, on, Fri 3 Jun 2011, 22:10, closed)