Ernest was my father and Morrit was my grandfather. The object is a Christmas telegram. Ernest was in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, serving as an LSBA, Leading Sick Berth Attendant. After service in North Ness naval hospital near Scapa Flow, he was drafted to India and spent about two years on board landing craft LCMD 287. This was based at Mandapam in southern India. He took part in the landings during the Battle of Akyab in Burma. He returned home in the spring of 1946 and spent the rest of his life in the village of Upper Hopton where he was born. He died in 2019 at the age of 97. Morritt was a coalminer until about 1920 and then worked as a linesman on the railway. He died in 1958. The telegram was in a family photograph album.
The additional photograph shows Ernest and his shipmate Sandy Ward on leave at the southern Indian hill station of Ootacamund. Ernest is on the viewer’s right.
