My Grandad Reginald Anderson's Silent Struggle

My grandad is, in part, the inspiration for my academic career. Reginald Anderson joined up in 1935 and saw the transition of his regiment, the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards (the "Skins"), from cavalry to mechanised. He was born in Staffordshire, his father was Scottish, and his family were all miners in the Black Country collieries. They lived in abject poverty. The Army was his only means of escape. After the relative quiet of the Phoney War, his unit had to retreat through Belgium to be evacuated from Dunkirk. The horrors of his experiences during this action haunted him throughout... Mehr ...