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This story has been contributed to the People’s War by the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Learning Centre on behalf of Denis Gunn's niece Iris Cotterell (nee Gunn), with her permission.

My uncle Denis Gunn was born in February 1923.

Denis went to RAF cadet training in North Wales, near Aberystwyth, and when he finished his training and became Flying Officer Gunn he was sent to Rhodesia, where the RAF was running pilot training schools.

Before Denis joined the RAF he worked in the Midland Bank in Bishop's Stortford, opposite the chemist's shop where my mother Marie Carruthers worked and that's how she met the family.

Mum was friends with Denis first, but stayed in touch with his sister when she moved away with the Land Army, and lodged with her occasionally. That's how she then met his older brother Joe, who she later married and who became my Dad.

Denis loved Rhodesia and married a Rhodesian woman. They came back to the UK after the war but found it so depressing and grey after Africa that they went back and stayed there. Unfortunately he caught polio and died in 1952. He was only 29.

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