My Grandfather, George Vernon BOTTERILL, Royal Tanks Corps.

In World War 1, my paternal Grandfather was a tank commander (a parallelogram shaped tank, a surviving example of which can be seen in the Bovingdon Tank Museum in Dorset). He saw action in France which led to him being awarded the Military Cross and being mentioned in dispatches from General Haigh.

Come World War 2 he was living in Blandford, Dorset and immediately joined the local Home Guard and became their Armaments Officer. He also taught my father, Peter Graham BOTTERILL, (then a schoolboy) to strip, clean and reassemble a vickers water-cooled machine gun at home!

A general appeal was made to all the citizens of Blandford to hand in to my Grandfather any weapons they may have. He checked them over and stored them in a large locked cupboard at the bottom of the stairs in the family house. Thankfully, they were never needed.

One of the weapons handed in (anonymously) was a tiny Beretta pistol in a ladies small, glittering evening purse. That begged the most intriguing question of which lady in the quiet market town of Blandford had at some stage in her life carried such a weapon - and why! The mystery was never solved.

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