War veterans welcome ‘comradeship and unity’ at Remembrance service

Second World War veterans spoke of tracing the family of a fallen hero, offering advice to younger generations and being deeply moved by applause as they reflected on the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph.

Around 20 personnel who served during the conflict are understood to have attended events in central London on Sunday.

Among them was Philip Dawson, 100, from Macclesfield, in Cheshire, who enlisted in the Royal Marines in 1943 at the age of 18, and who said that Sunday’s service was a “celebration of comradeship and unity”, allowing him to reflect on those he had fought alongside.

Mr Dawson earned his Green Beret after Commando training and served during the 1944 assault on Walcheren in the Netherlands, fighting to clear German defences blocking Allied access to Antwerp.

He told the PA news agency: “The reception we got was quite amazing, (the applause) didn’t stop the whole way around. I’m amazed, but it’s good that people are remembering and taking part in the comradeship which is so important.

“Comradeship unites people together and in this world and the way things are, we need to be comrades and unite together because then you’re strong.

“Young people must remember what the forces did during the Second World War and what the aggression was like, you’ve got to unite against an aggressor and my goodness me there are plenty of them around at the moment.”

Asked to reflect on the differences between his generation and subsequent ones, Mr Dawson said: “My Commando training has altered the whole of my life, it fixed my character for the whole of my life and I’m not sure whether in this day and age the kids have that drive.”

Meanwhile, D-Day veteran Arthur Oborne, 101, said his daughter had managed to trace the family of a friend who he said had saved his life during the conflict.

Mr Oborne, from Portishead, Somerset, was shot in the lung three days after arriving on Gold Beach during the Normandy landings.

Walter Gummerson, known as Gummy, dragged him out of harm’s way and into a field hospital where army medics were able to save his life, he said.

Gummy was killed the next day alongside the rest of his unit.

Speaking in France last year to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, Mr Oborne told the King, the Queen, and others of his gratitude to Gummy.

Last September, he met with Gummy’s great-niece and other family members, adding that they had not known much about his service.

He said: “We had dinner and I just wanted to say thank you to them because he saved my life.

“I have mixed feelings on days like this, remembering those we lost like Gummy.”

It was a first trip to the Cenotaph for Remembrance Sunday for Kenneth Embleton, 101, who served with the Queen’s Royal Regiment and later the Royal Corps of Signals, leading a Punjabi unit in Burma before flying to Malaya to take part in its reoccupation.

Mr Embleton, who lives in Wellington in Somerset, said: “It’s all been very marvellous and I feel humbled about it because I do wonder if the general population still knows about us.

“I got quite moved to see them all clapping, I had a few tears… the service hits you right in the heart.”