Page 136 - RSDG Year of 2021 CREST

142 EAGLE AND CARBINE
a thrilling time packed with adventure, comradeship
and positive experiences.
John lost his beloved wife, Helen, in 2012 but had been active and well until being diagnosed with lung cancer. He died on 18 December 2020.
Alfred Dobson
Alf Dobson was born on Burns Night 1931. He was 8 years old when the Second World Warr started and his father died when he was 12 years old but he sup- ported his mother through these difficult times.
In 1949 he enlisted to do his
National Service and joined the Royal Scots Greys in Germany. Apart from learn- ing to stand on his own two feet while in the Army he developed a life-long interest in tanks and warfare. He returned to England and went to Teacher Training College in Sheffield, paying his way by working as a
labourer on building sites.
Apart from being a teacher, he gained a law degree and was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in 1969 and was called to the Bar of England and Wales by Lincoln’s Inn on 26 November 1974. He went on to lecture in law at college and was much loved by his college students. He did his MA in Public Administration (Law) and was also the Chief Examiner of A level law.
He retired at 58, but never stopped learning, nor did he become old minded. He had a myriad of interests including dogs, history, tanks, philosophy, geology, biology, birds, photography, art, government, walk- ing, rugby, Darlington FC and gardening, and more recently cigarette card collecting, book fairs, comput- ers, ecology, wine and cooking.
One of his biggest achievements was within the dog world with his loyalty and lifetime service to the Norwegian Buhund Club. The Norwegian Buhund first came to the United Kingdom in 1947 and he started writing about them by 1950. Anne Smith, the current chair of the Club stated, “The Buhund club was officially recognised by the Kennel Club in March 1968 largely down to the hard work and persistence of Alf who subsequently agreed to be the first Club Secretary.” He judged the breed and the last time he did so was in 2018, aged 87, having previously judged 16 times, including at Crufts. He and his wife received an accolade in 2019, for their lifetime service to the dogs.
Alf died on 23 January 2021, two days short of his 90th birthday.
Alfred William Entwistle
Bill Entwistle was born on 1st April 1926 at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, the younger son of John and Lily Entwistle. He attended Chesham Junior School and then Eastward Secondary School but left at 14 years old to work with his mother Lily, at the Bury Feltworks in Freetown, East Bury.
On 18 April 1944 he was called up into the Royal Armoured Corps. He was sent to Ballykinler in Northern Ireland, where he underwent a six week training course. “Many times we ran to the base of the Mountains of Mourne, but thank God we never ran up them”, he used to say. At the end of the six weeks, he was sent to Bovington. Once they arrived in Stranraer from Northern Ireland, the young recruits were put on trains taking them to their destination. He recalled, “we boarded this train that would take us all the way down to Wool station in Dorset. I can remember we stopped a few times to take on water for the boiler and coal for the engine. Women would come to greet us, with hot mugs of tea and sandwiches. How the country pulled together in times of urgency, it was remarkable.”
At Bovington he learned how to drive a Sherman Firefly MK4. On 18 August 1944, whilst out driving his tank, he entered the village of Wool. While driving through the village, something shot out in front of him and he reacted by pulling the wrong leaver, which took the tank in the opposite direction he wanted it to go, and he ended up going straight through a brick pill- box. He was put on a charge for destroying the prop- erty of the Dorset County Council.
On 23rd February 1945 he was posted to France where he joined up with the Royal Scots Greys. His role was to drive a tank when needed, although his main role towards the end of World War Two was as a dispatch driver in a one and a half ton truck. He did this until he left the Army on 25 January 1948.
After the war ended Bill played for the regimental foot- ball team. In one match in Wismar he recalled, “It was very cold and the ground was as hard as iron. I went up for a ball and came down hard upon the ground, I seemed to have briefly knocked myself out, and, when I got to my feet, I lined up with the other team; I didn’t know where I was but we won and I scored.”