A Christmas telegram from the Middle East 1941

My uncle, Douglas Hugh Fowler was fighting in the Middle East Forces in October 1941. His brother Thomas James Fowler, my father, who was 10 years younger, was at a training camp in Catford. My father received a telegram from Douglas, passing on Christmas wishes and good luck, 'good luck kid'.

Douglas was killed in action a year later and is remembered on the Alamein Memorial.

My father also fought in North Africa and later took part in the allied invasion of Southern Italy. He was captured by German forces in Battapaglia and was imprisoned in a camp in Poland. In January 1945 he was forced to march westward and many of his fellow prisoners died along the way. They were not well guarded and he and two others made their way to Regensburg where they were able to make contact with American forces. He was repatriated and after demobilisation he met and married my mum and became a weaver in a Lancashire cotton mill. A truly decent man who I was proud to call dad.