My Uncle: Hugh Howard Royal Army Medical Corps

[Adrian Stevenson]

Family items are always special. These are a few items which belonged to my Uncle. He was married to my Dad's sister. He passed away some years ago now.

He served from 1939 to 1945. He was part of the BEF and fought in France in 1940. He volunteered to stay behind with the wounded at Dunkirk, but was told to embark back to the UK. He had a very bad time at Dunkirk and would get very upset if he talked about it.

He later served in North Africa, Italy and Austria.

My cousin has all his medals. But I have his insignia. Note the plastic cap badge and Austrian made insignia for the 46th Inf Div.

The photos were taken in Italy and the UK. He wears an American made Battledress blouse with service stripes and the maroon sleeve rings insignia of a stretcher bearer. This photo was taken in 1945.

The "Aerogram" microfilmed postcard was sent as a Christmas Card to my Dad who was a young boy of 9 at the time.

Cheers, Ade.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Here is a close up of his divisional insignia. As you can see these have been worn and removed from his Battledress.

Hugh attended his vets association meetings once a year until they folded due to there being only of handful of them left alive.

Hopefully his medals might come my way one day. My cousin is an only child and although she is married, they have no family.

I do have several stories which he told me. I might have to think a bit before telling them here, as they are pretty disturbing.

I also have his RAMC field manual. He retained an interest in medicine all his life. After the war he went into teaching engineering. One job he did before going onto the teaching side of things was to help cut up the big cross channel guns which were based on the south coast of England at Dover.

Cheers, Ade.

[Jerry B]

Great family items Ade, great to see them.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Wedding Day Photo, Ruddington St Peters Church, October 1945.

[StuG III]

Very nice collection Ade, I too hope the medals come your way some day soon so you can complete the grouping.
Always extra special when it belonged to a family member.

Tom

[Adrian Stevenson]

Thanks guys. This was an old thread I had forgot about until one of our Greek members asked about family service in WW2.

I think the medals will come my way one day (I hope).

The war left a big mark on my Uncle. His brother, John Walter Howard, was Killed in action on HMS Hythe on Oct 11th 1943. He said he got the news just prior to his unit taking part in a river crossing in Italy. He never really came to terms with this and sadly all things German were never popular with him.


Cheers, Ade.

[ruddersrangers44]

Thanks for reigniting this thread Ade you must be emmensely proud to an original BEF in your family history...............Jake.