Stewart Cooney R.A.

Discussion in 'Royal Artillery' started by bamboo43, Jul 22, 2016.

  1. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

  2. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    It's been covered quite a lot in Leeds/Yorkshire in the press. Some of my colleagues from work were planning on going and I was going to do some research but know one could identify his unit within the time frame. It was nice to see so many folk from Leeds went to give him a fitting send off, apparently there was standing room only at the service. I think I may have even met him as I've been to the nursing home a fair few times.
     
  3. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Thanks Andy. I'm glad that the funeral was well attended, there is nothing sadder than a funeral with only a handful of mourners present.
     
  4. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    "Some long lost relatives even turned up including his sister."

    I'm glad the old soldier got a good send off, but it saddens me that his last years were likely lonely -- and the sentence I quote above is puzzling, at least to me.

    Edit: dementia seems to have been a factor.
     
  5. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    I do my colleagues heads in at work. When we meet elderly people they know the first thing I do is work out how old they are to see if they served in the war. I've been ever so fortunate to have met soldiers from Dunkirk, North Africa, Italy, NWE, Asia and RAF crew, RN and MN, Commando's, Nurses, Factory workers et all. It's a great privilege to meet them but sadly I get so little time with them.

    One particular chap I went to had tried to commit suicide. Talking to him about his problems one of them was he missed his brother terribly who had died during WW2 serving in the RAF. His brother won a DFM during WW2 and he never knew what for or the circumstances of his death. Whilst my colleague treated him I got on the phone to my Mrs's managing to catch her just before she went to work and told her were my DFM citation book was, she looked him up and sent me the citation pages in a text. A couple of quick emails and texts from my phone to a couple of forum members and before we got to hospital I had the circumstances of his death. By the time we arrived at A&E I had got all the info together and in the back of the ambulance I read the citation out to him and his wife and told them how his brother had died over seventy years ago. When we went into A&E the nurses and Drs were wondering what the hell had happened because we were all in floods of tears :lol:
     

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