Residents' Stories
Below are a selection of snippet pieces about some of the war-time experiences of residents who live at our homes.
John Whiteley
John joined the Territorial Army shortly before WWII started, and was then called up. He transferred to the Air Force in 1941, and after a couple of years as a flying instructor, in October 1944 he was posted to 619 Squadron, part of 5 Group Bomber Command. John captained a Lancaster bomber and completed 30 missions before he was "tour expired". In autumn 1945 John was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for operations over Germany.
Stephanie Kerans
Stephanie served with the WRNS and worked in the plotting room. She took part in the plotting of D-Day before being moved to the Far East. She recalls, "There were many of us on telephones contacting radar stations, we got some information on the positioning of enemy ships and the plotting officers would record it on the big maps we had, we were on watch all the time. There was one night one of our ships was attacked and we were all waiting up. I can't remember why, but we all felt a sort of responsibility.
Louis Pengelly-Phillips
Louis joined the Royal Marines in 1943 at the age of 17. He was top of his class and was attached to a special security team that protected Winston Churchill when he visited Quebec to discuss plans for D-Day with Roosevelt. Louis also took part in D-Day, landing on Gold beach. He then went on through France as far as Amsterdam. From there his unit was sent back to England to be retrained for the Far East. He fought the Japanese in Burma and liberated Rangoon in 1945. After the war Louis worked as a farmer until 1952 when he fell out of a window and broke his back. In 1980 his health deteriorated and he came to live at The Royal Star & Garter, Richmond.
Jimmy Harman
At various times in his life Jimmy has been peace-keeper, mine clearer (by hand) and Commando. In 1936 at the age of 17 Jimmy joined the regular army in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He was sent to Burma to quell local unrest. Jimmy left the Army but was called up for the Second World War and posted to the Royal Engineers. He was sent to North Africa and during El Alamein his task was to clear mines ahead of the British advance. He also trained as a Commando and took part in raids on Spitsbergen and Vaagso. Jimmy recently came into our Richmond Home aged 90 after a spell in hospital.
Ronald Careless
Ronald joined the sea cadets in Birmingham and after grammar school, he worked for the Birmingham City Treasurer's Department. He Served in the Royal Navy from 1944 to 1947 on only one ship - the battleship HMS Nelson. Ronald Careless found HMS Nelson a very happy ship and he wrote a book about her which was published in November 1985. HMS Nelson was involved in much active service and following the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, the Japanese surrendered and the articles of surrender were signed on board HMS Nelson. Ronald married in 1950 and has a twin boy and a girl.
