Thrilled (From Penarth Times)

Thrilled

9:40am Thursday 9th July 2009

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I WAS thrilled to see Mr S G Hayward's photograph of the Home Guard at Sully in last week's Penarth Times (July 2).

My father, John Flanigan, is in the centre of the picture, with his hat at a jaunty angle, atop his mop of unruly blonde hair. Dad lied about his age in order to join the Home Guard, and would have been 17 when this photograph was taken.

As a child, dad would often regale my siblings and I with tales of his adventures whilst on duty at the Penarth Head Fort, with his pals Dickie Jones, Louis Falcon and Spud Spear.

He told tales of covert apple scrumping, climbing the 'monkey ladder' up the cliff face from the beach, and the ghost that he encountered in St Augustine's churchyard on one cold, dark night.

We children found it very odd that the boy soldiers had been issued guns ready for a German invasion, but they had no bullets, they often went on organised marches to the gun emplacements at the cliff top, and Sully, and I know that dad enjoyed this time of his life immensely.

He is now in his 83rd year and still a colourful member of the local community.

If anybody has more photographs of this era, I would love to see them in print.

Jill Keenan Stanwell Road Penarth

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