DAD’S WAR KEPT SECRET

Much has been written about the 100th anniversary of Passchendaele in the First World War. My father Fred joined the 11th Gloucestershire Regiment in 1915, aged 18.

It wasn’t until he died in 1985 that I discovered his military photographs. He never spoke a single word to me about it. His service records were destroyed in the Second World War. A photograph of the ruins at Dickebusch indicates he was near Ypres.

Reading about Freddie Parsons’ horrendous experiences, as told by his wife Joan (Mirror, July 29), I feel guilty that I once showed my dad a book on the First World War, which he completely ignored.

I can understand why – it would have unlocked nightmares he had hidden away for so many years. Jim Temlett, Dursley, Glos