Sidmouth: Army veteran presented with medals 75 years on at local care home

By Doveleigh Care Senior Activity Coordinator Philip Adams

When Geoff joined us at Dove Court I had the conversation that I always have with new residents about their life before coming to the care home. During the course of the conversation, Geoff mentioned that he had been in the Army and, being a history nerd, I asked a few additional questions about that time.

It transpired that Geoff had joined up in December 1944 as an eighteen-year-old conscript. He had originally been meant to join the RAF, but with the vagaries that often characterise the military, Geoff ended up in the Middlesex Regiment instead.

Before Geoff could deploy, Germany was defeated so his regiment was preparing for the invasion of Japan. However, the atomic bombs dropped on Japan abruptly ended the war in the East and probably saved Geoff's life, as an opposed invasion of Japan would have been a terrible affair for the infantry.

Instead, the 2nd Battalion Middlesex Regiment deployed to the Middle East and Geoff spent the next two years serving in Egypt and what was then still Palestine, where he was involved in a campaign that saw the British Army stuck in the middle of a conflict between the Palestinians and the Jews that would eventually lead to the creation of Israel in 1948. During that almost forgotten campaign, 750 British military personnel and police were killed in action or during incidents including the infamous King David Hotel bombing in 1946.

Having reached the rank of corporal, Geoff was demobbed on his return to the UK, married and started a family and worked for British Rail before becoming a Master Printer and manager of a company. During our conversation, Geoff told me that he had never received, or even applied for, any medals for which he might have qualified for because he didn't feel that he had done anything special. A bit of simple research very quickly confirmed what I had originally thought; Geoff was entitled to two medals.

I contacted the Ministry of Defence Medal Office at Insworth and sent off the application form. Very soon afterwards, two medals duly arrived; the War Medal 1939-45 for Geoff's service between 1944 and 1945 and the General Service Medal with the clasp for Palestine 1945-48.

Regulations for the military today state that medals should be properly presented to the recipient either on parade or in a private setting. We opted for the private setting, as a military band would not fit in our conservatory.

Geoff did not want the medals mounted so as to be worn but we did, however, ask Doveleigh Care Ltd's Managing Director, Keith Mills, himself a veteran Royal Marines Officer and recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross for his defence of South Georgia at the start of the Falklands War, to present the medals on one of our regular Thursday music afternoons.

Geoffrey Collingbine and Keith Mills (Doveleigh Care)

That afternoon, the March of the Middlesex Regiment was played and Geoff received his medals from Keith in the presence of family and residents… 75 years after he had earned them. Geoff was very modest about what he had done to earn his medals, telling the residents that he had not done anything heroic and had just happened to be there.

But, as I pointed out, Geoff had done what happens to everyone in the military; you do what you are told and you go to where you are told to serve your country and that is all that matters.

Doveleigh Care is a care home company based in East Devon. Each of its three care homes is rated 'Outstanding' by the Care Quality Commission and it has won numerous awards in recent years including 'National Care Home Group of the Year' in 2017, and has been rated one of the top care home providers in the country by website carehome.co.uk for seven years in a row.

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