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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Mike Millington of CSV on behalf of Norman Hancock and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The story was originally recorded by members of the Brampton Museum Newcastle Under Lyme
The war was over and we were paraded on the square at our camp in South Africa having come from Suez for the last 12 months of the war. The sun beat down and the heat was getting oppressive.
The Brigadier, a South African, droned on and on.
“You have walked through the Valley of Death; You have suffered the heat of the desert and the cold and sludge of Italy and the way ahead is still fraught with obstacles” and so it went on and on, the sun getting hotter and hotter.
A man from Glasgow muttered to me, “I’m going to faint, Norm, so you ask permission to carry me off the parade ground.” “Right Jock.”
Certainly the faint deserved a Hollywood Oscar. Crash he was on the floor and the Brigadier droned on and on.
“Permission to remove LAC Shepperd sir?”
“Permission granted.”
Stepping smartly out of line I carried and dragged Jock off the parade ground. As we were sipping an ice cold lager in the canteen (purely medicinal to revive Jock, of course) the Brigadier droned on and on and as far as I know he’s still talking.

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