Page 27 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

at Birmingham City. That is where from the earliest age, I learned to cope with
frequent defeats and to appreciate occasional victories.

Finally, as a retired couple they moved to a maisonette in Ninfield Road,
Acocks Green in 1993.

In the 1990’s Dad developed polycythaemia (a high concentration of red
blood cells in the blood), which resulted in several heart-attacks, and he died
in February 1995 at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham. Despite years of
medical advice from doctors urging him to stop smoking, he stubbornly
maintained that at his stage of life after all it had thrown at him, a smoke and
a beer was what he enjoyed. Whilst I wouldn’t condone his decision, it was his
to make. Mom died a year later of perforated ulcers and peritonitis. Both
were cremated at Robin Hood crematorium in Hall Green, Birmingham.

Death Bed Revelations

In the last painful year of his year of his life, much of which was spent in
Hospital, Dad opened up about his war-time experiences to Peter, my eldest
brother. In doing so, a mystery about dads’ war years that had always
plagued our curiosity was finally put to bed.

Between 1972 and 1974 an award-winning drama appeared on our TV
screens. It followed the lives of prisoners of war held at Colditz prison camp in
Germany during World War 2. Based on real events, with help from real
Colditz prisoner Major P R Reid, the drama captivated audiences with its gritty
claustrophobic nature covering escapes, murder and mental issues that has
secured its place in history as one of the best drama recounts of Colditz Oflag
IV-C. The film and TV series were based on the book written by Pat Reid, who
was imprisoned in Colditz Castle in Germany during the Second World War
and who was the Escape Officer for British POWs within the castle.

This thousand year old fortress was in the heart of Hitler's Reich, four hundred
miles (640 km) from any frontier not under Nazi control. Its outer walls were
seven feet (two meters) thick and the cliff on which it was built had a sheer
drop of two hundred and fifty feet (75 meters) to the River Mulde below

When the Colditz drama would appear on TV, dad was often heard to say, ‘It
wasn’t like that’. When questioned how he could possibly know, he would cut
us short saying ‘I just do.’

The story had been made famous years earlier, in the 1955 feature film
starring John Mills. For those who don’t know the history, in World War II, the Page27
Germans transformed Colditz Castle into a high security prisoner-of-war