"At The Going Down Of The Sun And In The Morning We Shall Remember Them"

Melanie Howe relates: As it is Remembrance Sunday and we remember all who have fought in all wars, I would like to remember my Dad.

Barry Roberts (my dad of West Pontnewydd) fought in the Korean war. He, along with his Regiment were there for quite some time and only a very few of them came home. The interesting part of this story is that my dad and his mate, Brynley Smith and a few others were reported as killed in action. My Nan and Gramp at the time lived in Crown Close Pontnewydd, and when the telegram came (as they did in those days) my Gramp had bad eyes and could not read it, so ran to his brother's house in Pen-Parc (prefabs) to get him to read it. As you can imagine to have this news was devastating.

A few days after this (I'm not sure what happened), the War Office London contacted my Grandparents to say that they had in fact been wounded and had been  located in a hospital; it turned out that most of the regiment had been blown up as they had to go through mine fields etc, but my dad and his mate came through it.

My Dad did not talk much about the time in Korea but I have some letters that were received from the War Office. The Newport Counsellor Noel Trigg was part of the same team.

 

The Korean War is not mentioned very much but when I hear things on the TV about the wars; I seem to appreciate what happened to dad and his comrades and appreciate how hard it must have been for them.

My Dad died in 1993 at the age of just 60 years and I remember him everyday; So today, I remember the rest of my Dad's comrades who did not make it home, my dad was mistakenly reported as dead  ... but did come home, so he was not so unfortunate.