memories of Dunkirk

During the 1950's when I was a young boy I shared an attic as a bedroom in a terraced house in South Shields. A framed photograph of a young girl was on a dressing table who I didn't know.
It's only in latter life that you realise how poignant this becomes.
When Mum died we (my sister and I) came across a 'shoebox' of letters, cards, paper cuttings, diaries and keepsakes from ww2 which had probably been untouched for nearly fifty years.
George Lynn (my father) volunteered for service and was called up into the Royal Engineers and was part of the BEF in France. The BEF forced back to the beaches of Dunkirk included George and his close friend l/cpl Ted Ashley (RE). They were finally taken on board HMS Grafton on May 29th. Many of those who were taken aboard were soaked to the skin and below deck had stripped to dry when the German sub U-62 fired two torpedoes into the Grafton. In the pandemonium and confusion of darkness George and Ted lost contact. A decision was made to close watertight doors and while George had made it on to the deck Ted was trapped below. If this made much difference it was hard to justify. George scrambled on to the Malines which had pulled alongside and made it back to England Ted lost his life that day and never got to see the daughter his wife was expecting. The photograph on the dressing table was his daughter.
George died in 1990,he rarely talked about his time in the Royal Engineers but left a detailed account of his time in North Africa especially 1943. I will endevour to share it with others.

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