When I was at high school, the Head of English was a WWII and Korean Veteran. His youngest son was my age and as young kids we used to love playing 'war' in his garden, aided by lots of military uniform and kit that his father had collected. The father was quite a severe and taciturn man, walked with a limp from an injury in Korea but had an encyclopaedic knowledge on military matters and conducted school battlefield tours to Normandy and to WWI battlefields. His injury forced him to give up his career as an infantry officer (DLI) to become a teacher. He never went in detail into his service career but had landed on D-Day and helped to relieve suffering at a concentration camp - Belsen, I think, and was injured during a Chinese advance in Korea.
Except none of this happened. I just learned through social media that he had died a few years ago in his mid 90s: his military background was a fantasy and the family only found out when making funeral arrangements. He had been a CCF officer in the 1950s, but that was it. I haven't seen his son (who was in the army in the 1980s on a SSC) since the 1990s, but tracked him down on Linked In and sent him a note of condolence.
I won't name this fantasist, in respect to his family, and didn't mention this to his son (I am sure the family are still in shock and acutely embarrassed by it). I have no idea why he played on being a veteran (I have vague recollections of him wearing medals at a School Remembrance Service - along with one or two other teachers), but his very vivid accounts of military history gave me a passion both for history and being in the Services. In contrast, my father, who served during the war, said very little, and never really got on with 'George' who lived around the corner. Perhaps dad twigged something wasn't right.
We'll never know, of course.
Except none of this happened. I just learned through social media that he had died a few years ago in his mid 90s: his military background was a fantasy and the family only found out when making funeral arrangements. He had been a CCF officer in the 1950s, but that was it. I haven't seen his son (who was in the army in the 1980s on a SSC) since the 1990s, but tracked him down on Linked In and sent him a note of condolence.
I won't name this fantasist, in respect to his family, and didn't mention this to his son (I am sure the family are still in shock and acutely embarrassed by it). I have no idea why he played on being a veteran (I have vague recollections of him wearing medals at a School Remembrance Service - along with one or two other teachers), but his very vivid accounts of military history gave me a passion both for history and being in the Services. In contrast, my father, who served during the war, said very little, and never really got on with 'George' who lived around the corner. Perhaps dad twigged something wasn't right.
We'll never know, of course.
