Lancaster Grange Care Home, Fernwood resident delighted to receive father’s second world war medals after efforts of Balderton branch of Royal Air Forces Association (RAFA)
The daughter of a second world war POW is set to receive her father’s long lost war medals thanks to the efforts of Balderton’s veteran support system.
Beryl Mason, 93, is a resident of Lancaster Grange Care Home in Fernwood and her father Frank Swift, a butcher by trade born in Aspley in Nottingham, was called up to serve in the war in 1939 in the Territorial Army’s 107 South Nottinghamshire Hussars, a volunteer cavalry regiment.
He fought in the Siege of Tobruk and the Battle of Knightsbridge, but was taken as a POW during the latter and died in captivity in December 1942, and was later buried in Milan War Cemetery.
His daughter, Beryl, was just 11 years old at the time of his death.
She said: “I was only eight when he went away and I remember waving goodbye to him.
“My mum was delighted when she heard that he’d been taken as a POW as she thought that meant he would be coming home, but he never did.
“A softer man than my dad you never would have found, but he did what he had to do in the war.”
On Remembrance Day last year, Beryl and the other residents were visited by members of Balderton’s RAFA as part of the group’s monthly visits to the home, and she was sharing her father’s story with RAFA welfare officer Chris Gangel.
“She was in tears telling me her dad’s story, and remembered that at the Battle of Knightsbridge, they were told to ‘fight to the last man’,” Chris said.
“Beryl said all she has left of her dad is a few newspaper cuttings, a few photos, and faded memories of him,” Chris recalled, “She’s a wonderful lady and we just had to do something about that and give her something to remember her dad by.
“She said she thought he might have had some medals, but wasn’t sure, so we decided to find out.”
The RAFA set to work to investigate and found out that her father had indeed been awarded four medals — the Africa Star, the Defence Medal, the War Medal 1939-1945, and the 1939-1945 Star medal — but sadly these had been delivered to the wrong address and the family never received them.
The branch have now managed to track down four medals from an original batch that was cast at the time of the war, and is in the process of getting them mounted, along with a high-definition copy of a photo of her father and the details of his service printed alongside them.
An appeal has now also been made for either a former or currently serving officer of the Hussars to present the medals to Beryl on her 94th birthday on April 27, and other dignitaries will also be invited.
“It doesn’t matter what forces they served in, they all deserve to be remembered for their families,” Chris said.
Beryl said she was delighted with the news, and it was a lovely thing to do by the RAFA.
Lancaster Grange’s general manager Charles Sadler said that the RAFA had done a wonderful thing for Beryl and thanked them for all their hard work.
