Precious cuppa with my beloved brother

ThE year was 1943 and I was six years old, sitting at my school desk, when the headmistress came in to say something to the class. ‘Mary Cooke can leave school early today — her brother is home on leave from the war. he is outside waiting for her.’ And there he was, my adored big brother James, dressed in his naval uniform. Was there ever a sister so proud as he took my hand and walked me home? Once there, he gave me my birthday present — a dolls’ china tea set. What a great family time we had! he went back to his ship, hMS Egret — and we never saw him again. While mine-sweeping in the Bay of Biscay on August 27, 1943, the ship took a direct hit from a German bomb. James was just 19 years old and his grave is the bottom of the sea. I am 81 now and still have the letters he wrote home to my mum — and the tea set. Mary Hall (nee Cooke),

Retford, Notts.