Railway Man at War in North Africa

My father was an officer in the Royal Engineers, he was a railway man. He was sent to North Africa to deal with the Suez Canal to work on railways. When there was a programme on television about Dunkirk, I asked him if he was in Dunkirk. He replied, 'No, we got cut off'. He was in Paris in 1940 and because of the German invasion of France, he had to head South to escape. Looking at his diary he actually left Paris a day or so before the Germans arrived in the city. He never told us what he was doing in Paris. He had a small battalion that was based there.

There's also a story from a friend who's mother was in the French resistance. I helped my friend write a book about her mother's time in the war. She was 18 years old and living in Paris when the Germans invaded. Her and a 19 year old friend organised a resistance group that was linked to a chateau in the Pyrenees (see note on Chateau Dorian below). They helped to get people out of France during the war. I knew her mother well, but she never talked about it. My friend found her mother's diaries when she died and in fact some of the other members of the resistance group are still alive - one of them still is at 103 years old.

My father was in North Africa with colleagues and I think they had a very nice time. I have brought in a menu from a victory dinner in Khartoum. I never got the impression that there was never much hardship during the war.

I think they escaped Paris and got down to Marseille, but its unclear how he got back to the UK. I imagine he got back to the UK.

I was born on 6 August 1945, the day they dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. My brother, Peter is 3 years older, so my father must have come back before the end of the war at some point. My father's name was John Sandham-Symes. My parents were married on December 22, 1939. They met before the war. Both my grandfathers were railway men - one at the Crewe works and one at the Derby works. Derby works built tanks. They were introduced by Sir William Stanier, who designed steam locomotives.

It was sad that my parents never talked about the war. We should have talked more to my parents about it. They just got on with things. My mother was very fortunate, she was able to live near her mother in Somerset, Lavington.

The first home I can remember, and I must have been 2 or 3, was in Staffordshire. When my father came back after the war he went straight back to work on the railways. Of course, my father didn't come back immediately after the war because they had to stay there. I'm not sure when he was demobilised - it might be in his paybooks, etc. He never threw anything away. There was a type-written railway timetable when they opened a line to Alexandria. There's a book how to recognise German weapons.
It was a different sort of conscription in a way, because he transferred his skills on the railway to another country during the war. Of course, he was working with his colleagues from home out there. He went out with railway men - it was a great community in those days. I remember as a child meeting people he went out with. He was with friends and colleagues out in North Africa. As a railwayman, he moved every 3 years. It's remarkable that all these books are together still - I think my parents lived in 14-15 homes. It was quite a transient childhood.

My father never threw anything away, my brother is like that too. I've only brought some of the books - not all - they had books on all sorts of things.

My uncle was ADC to General Eisenhower. I don't know much about him. His name was George Lemon. It's good that you're capturing stories now before our generation disappears because these stories will be lost otherwise.

Some people must have been more badly affected, but I never felt my father suffered, in fact I think he quite enjoyed it! I think that the victory dinner menu says it all. Perhaps my mother had a worse time, she must have worried about my father.

An uncle of a great friend of ours, Tony Deane-Drummond. He was one of two men who hid in a cupboard at Arnhem. And when he died, his obituary stated that he was captured by the Germans and escaped 3 times! When he went into a nursing home, he gave talks.

Chateau Dorian is still there. Funnily enough its owned by a youngish German couple. A group of us went there recently to visit a memorial to the French Resistance but our hosts were very friendly. I think its important to remember that not all German families were supportive of what was going on during the war. I'm sure this family was like that as they were very interested.

We have walked some of the escape routes in the Pyrenees - it was very hard walking. When the escapees got to Spain, I think they were arrested by the Spanish and the British would come and clear you. It wasn't easy, but it is a lovely bit of country.

Did you ever see where your father worked in North Africa? I've been to Egypt but I don't know exactly where he went. My brother has more objects and stories he could share. I suspect that my father has stories that are not typical.