This is a photograph of my late father(left).Dad was in the Royal Signals and was a motor bike despatch rider attached to the 8th Army brigade(desert rats)in the western desert during WW2.

This was taken at Oswestry in North Wales. My Grandfather is in the centre of the bottom row with a single stripe. This was a transit camp before going to France where he took part in the Battle of the Somme. He survived and came out with the rank of Sergeant.

Stoker 1st class Jack Ion is in the previous photo resting his hands on his fathers shoulders. He was my mothers eldest brother and was the first born in the family. He served in the Royal Navy in WW2 and was a crew member on the destroyer HMS Quentin when she was sunk by a torpedo when taking part in Operation Torch in December 1942.He was one of 12 members of the crew who did not survive.

My grandfather's brother, Joseph, who served in France and took part in the battle of the Somme with his brother John. He suffered wounds which eventually resulted in him being invalided out of the Army. On his return to Liverpool he obtained a job as a freight clerk with the Harrison Shipping line. In one of his letters which he sent home from the front line, he referred to ''this cursed war''. Joe,along with his brother John(my grandfather) both died in their early 40's.

This postcard was sent by my Grandfather when in the army in WW1. It was to his eldest child Jack, who was about 4 years old. The little sister referred to was my mother aged 2 at the time. Jack,in later years, was in the Royal Navy in WW2.He lost his life at the age of 29 when his ship was hit by a torpedo.