Readers share their memories of loved ones who fought… and died

MY father was a very quiet man who never spoke about the things he saw during the war.

My brothers William, Edward and James, and I would play with the Military Medal he was given. Our mother Lily kept it hidden in a drawer but we always found it. We’d ask dad, “What did you get it for?” and he’d say quietly, “Oh, for acting soft.”

EAs we near the anniversary of the end of the First World War, Emily Denby, 92, of Abergele, North Wales, recalls dad William Henry Davis, a lance bombardier in the Royal Artillery

That’s all he said. His brothers Edward and James went down with their ship when it was bombed.

But at his funeral in 1969, his sister said he worked with horses and there was a fire.

She said my dad saved the horses from burning and that’s

why he got the medal. We’ll never know. When he died, the local paper wrote about a quiet man going to his grave with a secret.

The reason he was awarded the medal will always niggle at me.

My husband George would always talk about his time in the Navy during the Second World War.

We were happily married for 69 years until his death four years ago and I’d often talk about the mystery of the medal.

Even though I’ll never know why he got it, I’m still so proud of him. SERVICE William Davis