Age: 89

Regiment/length of service: 7 years and 4 months with the Royal Artillery

Medals: 1939/1945 Star, Italy Star, Defence Medal, 1939/45 War, TA Efficiency Medal

In-Pensioner since: 24th January 2005

Born: Oxford

John was too young to go overseas when the Second World War began and instead served in relief anti aircraft batteries, supporting "people who'd had a bad thump like Hull, Birmingham, Coventry, and Norwich. In 1943 he was sent to North Africa in a convoy in which the ship with all the artillery transport was sunk arriving in Algiers with 24 nine-ton guns and nothing to pull them. John's career saw him travel all over the world with the Colonial service for a good 35 years. His first family posting in Uganda in the mid '50s. John moved to the Hospital in January 2005.