Thursday, January 25, 2007

Another Legend falls

This is of course Colonel Coldwell- Horsefall of the 78th Battleaxe Division when he took command of the Irish Rifles of the 38th Irish bde at Cassino - in conjunction with my old regiment of the 16th/5th Lancers at the Gustav Line. He was then badly wounded at the Gothic Line and took no further part in the war.
I met him once briefly, when he was M.D. of Webster -Horsefall - wire makers of Birmingham when I was selling tools in that area on a one week training stint before being sent off to the Newcastle region. He struck me as a real "pukkha "Colonel who would stand no nonsense from anyone !
Sadly they are all going, but what memories they envoke.

2 Comments:

Blogger ritsonvaljos said...

Did you call him "Sir" or did he call you "Sir" after the war?

he was a fine fellow, I'm sure. "Old soldiers never die", as the saying goes.

Sunday, 28 January, 2007  
Blogger Tomcann said...

Actually I did as I recognised him from pictures on his office wall - so we had a chat about how we were both wounded at Coriano almost immediately they had returned from the 78th Divs "Hols" in Egypt !-which Rom knows all about !

Sunday, 28 January, 2007  

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