| My father, Andrew Jeffrey Evinou, died on October 24th, 2006, only a few weeks ago really. As a tribute to his memory, I have started researching his life during WW11 and am making a Tribute Memorabilia Box for my son Lawrence to hand on to his children, LEST WE FORGET! Dad served as a Tank Driver with the Fourth division of the Royal Armoured Tank Corps of the British Eighth Army. They joined up with the Seventh Division in North Africa. He was captured at Tobruk by the Italians and was a prisoner in Italy for a year and a half before being handed over to the Germans. I would really like to find out where he and the captured units of Tobruk were held as prisoners, so that I can further research his time there. If anyone who may read this article has any information, I would be most grateful.
My dad, like most of the veterans of that war, didn t speak much about their experiences. The little that I did hear was enough to allow me to understand and appreciate how my dad would be affected by those memories for the rest of his life. No-one spoke after that war about the psychological affects on the veterans; they were just left to get on with life when it was all over. I know that my dad suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He had every single one of the characteristics that I read about while researching the disorder.
When he died, he had no wish for a military funeral. He wanted to forget those years!! But I was determined that his funeral would have some military touches and that his sacrifices would be mentioned.
The following is part of the speech that I presented at his funeral. LEST WE FORGET - - Dad. I love you and I thank you, Your proud daughter, Jan
Memorial Service
Tribute to My Dad
October 27th, 2006
You will notice that there are a few military touches to my dad s funeral. As most of you know, Dad was a soldier, a member of the Royal Armoured Tank Corps, Fourth Division of the British Eighth Army and he fought in World War 11. That fact always seemed to be much more of a big deal to me than to him. To me the fact he volunteered to serve his country has always been a source of great, passionate pride.
Dad was eighteen when he went into the army and twenty six when he came out. Before he was my son Lawrence s age, he had fought in France and been rescued off the beaches at Dunkirk, fought in Africa and was captured there at Tobruk, he spent three and a half years in prisoner of war camps, first in Italy, then in Germany, never knowing whether he was going to get home. He worked fourteen hours a day in the mines in Germany.
He saw and experienced stuff that we couldn t even imagine. Those years affected his life and ours. He never spoke of the war in our childhood and only started to speak about it very briefly because his Grandkids Ronnie and Lawrence started asking about it for their school speeches. Dad told Lawrence that his speech made it sound like his grand-dad won the war single-handedly.
Lawrence was twelve then. That would have been forty five years after the war ended. That s a long time to carry such sad thoughts all by yourself. I feel very strongly that all who serve should be admired, praised and thanked for their courage, for their sacrifice and for their service to us all. Thank you dad and all veterans like you, for being willing to put your life on the line so that we don t have to. I salute you.
Submitted by shonadog
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