The British Army in India during WW2

My father, Wilfred Creek was born in August1910, in Worcester. He worked in the family estate agency and auctioneer business until he joined the RAF in 1941 and was trained as a radio technician. He married my mother, Marjorie Briney, in September 1939, and my brother Graham was born in June 1941.

After training in Blackpool and the Cotswolds he was posted to serve in India and Burma. During his time there he sent home drawings, poems, newspaper cuttings, birthday and Christmas cards to his family which Marjorie assembled into a scrapbook (Item 2).He would not talk about his experiences in the war after he returned home, apart from one story which involved him having to climb a radio mast in a thunder storm. I imagine that much of what he experienced was too harrowing to talk about. In scrapbook {Item one}, as well as photographs he took in Barrakpore, Calcutta, and Tibet, there are newspaper cuttings about the famine in Bengal and the desperate plight of the local people which must have affected him deeply.

He was artistic and musical, and a talented actor. He enjoyed performing in reviews, and helped organise concerts and shows for his comrades. He also hand drew posters and menus for special celebration meals.

During his time in Burma he contracted two severe bouts of vaccine fever, he was demobbed and returned home in 1946. My mother said he came home a changed man, so he was probably suffering from what we now know as PTSD. He rejoined the family business, and I was born in 1947, followed by my sister in 1948. A vivid childhood memory is of his RAF uniform hanging in a wardrobe.

My mother-in-law, Thelma Welch from Birmingham and my father-in-law, Leslie Salisbury from Worcester met during the war. They both worked in agriculture with the Land Army. Thelma drove tractors and lorries, while Leslie worked with livestock. They married in 1944 and after the war they made their home in a double decker bus in the corner of a field. There was a shortage of housing due to the severe bombing of Birmingham and the West Midlands. Their son Keith, my husband, was born in October 1945. We were married in 1969.