MISSING . . .
THE DAILY MAIL offers readers a unique opportunity to re-establish contact with long-lost relatives and friends. Each week, MONICA PORTER features the story of someone trying to find a missing loved one, as well as a tale of people reunited. This column is produced in conjunction with the voluntary tracing service, Searching For A Memory, run by Gill and John Whitley. Mel THOMAS writes: ‘I am contacting you on behalf of my father, John Frederick Kettley, who wishes to know if any of his World War II comrades are still alive.
‘he served with the hertfordshire Yeomanry at the start of the war, before transferring to the REME (Royal electrical and Mechanical engineers), where he served for most of the remainder.
‘he is now 96 and his desire to contact old army colleagues i s prompted by the f act that last year was the last Remembrance service to include war veterans.’
at age 20, John was called up for six months’ training, first at oswestry, then at aldershot. afterwards he was sent to France with the British expeditionary Force, returning to england after Dunkirk.
In the REME, he was promoted to staff sergeant and then posted to the Isle of sheppey with the anti-aircraft guns, defending against the notorious Doodlebugs.
he later returned to France with the 1st Canadian army, then moved on to antwerp and Nijmegen at the time of the Battle of the Bulge. The end of the war found him in the Dutch town of alkmaar. he was demobbed in York.
In Nijmegen, John met a Dutch girl whose name he drew out of a hat as a dance partner. They married in 1946, settling in Bradford, then halifax. John became a teacher after the war, working in secondary and middle schools in Bradford, until he retired, aged 60.