Story: John Mellor | Photo: Richard Hanson
Local Burngreave resident, Ken Riley (pictured), who is the chairman of the Sheffield branch of the Normandy Veterans' Association, tells me that the national association is to disband in November, although local groups, like the one in Sheffield, will be free to continue meeting informally for mutual support and social gatherings.
The Sheffield branch was formed in 1982 and one of its founding members, Gordon Drabble (the brother-in-law of Rev Don Sparkes, a former vicar of Christ Church, Pitsmoor) is now the secretary. I asked him why it took so long after the Normandy landings in June 1944 for the NVA to be formed. He said:
“After members of the armed services were demobilised in 1945 they wanted to forget about the trauma of their battle experiences and get back as quickly as possible to a normal civilian life. They found it difficult to talk to their families and friends about the horrific experiences they had witnessed during the war years which had affected many of them both physically and mentally. It was a veteran from Grimsby in 1981 who had the idea of forming a local group in that town and in response to an advert in the local press 35 veterans turned up for a meeting. This soon expanded nationally until there were 102 branches in the UK. They provided comradeship and mutual support with many veterans being able to speak and write about their experiences of the war for the first time.”
Some of these accounts have been published in recent editions of the Messenger and others are in the process of being prepared. The Sheffield branch now has 31 members, from a total of over 100 a decade or so ago. Those who remain are now 90 years of age or more, and this is the main reason for the official ending of the association. A commemoration and unveiling of a national monument is to take place shortly at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire with a member of the Royal Family present.