William Younghusband, Company Sergeant Major, in France

William (Company Sergeant Major) was in France in 1940, in charge of an Army Postal Centre. He was heading to Dunkirk but was warned by another senior officer that it was dangerous, and decided not to go there.

They made their way inland and came to a crossroads. There was a difference of opinion between William and his senior officer, Lieutenant Oliver, so they went in different directions. Oliver was then captured after taking the other direction.

William and his men hid for two days. They made their way to Le Havre where they scrounged a passage on the SS Vienna and sailed to Southampton with over 300 bags of mail and a large amount of cash.

In May 1946, Lieutenant Oliver wrote a letter of thanks to Sergeant William, thanking him for writing his war diary. They had burned most of their records so he was glad William had recorded events in France shortly after they occurred.

William went on to serve all over the Western Desert, North Africa, and then in the invasion of Sicily and Italy. He left the Army in January 1946 with the rank of Warrant Officer Second Class. He brought back an Africa Corps badge from North Africa.

William's family were from the Wimbledon area in London. His father was a World War I veteran. Francis, William's son, was evacuated to Polkington in Yorkshire, Vicarage in Bridgewater, Somerset, and a manor house in Devon. Francis had a huge family photograph to celebrate the end of the war at Caterham-on-Hill. Francis remembers the air raids.

Francis served in the Royal Navy in Gibraltar, Singapore, and Hong Kong in communications. He joined in 1953 aged 15, only 7 years after his dad left the forces! He trained in 1953 on HMS Ganges and served in Suez. HMS Ursa, the ship Francis was on, was deployed to the Mediterranean to monitor tensions in Cyprus. In 1962, Francis' warship collided with another in the Clyde and he was almost killed. Francis came out of the Navy in 1965 having served 12 years.

Francis went on to be a witness to the Cold War and served in the police in Portsmouth. He was deployed to Nottinghamshire during the miners' strike.