South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2005 | August | 5
From the Gazette, first published Friday 5th Aug 2005.
A THORNBURY war veteran has made a poignant pilgrimage to Malaysia more than 60 years after being stationed in the South East Asian country during the Second World War.
Former Royal Naval Commando Edward Pinkard was just 21 years old when he was shipped to Kuala Lumpur in a bid to fight the attempted Japanese take-over in 1944.
However, the widower told the Gazette he was flabbergasted when he landed in Malaysia this time around because the place had changed so much.
"When we were there the whole place was all jungle and we had to survive the best we could.
"This time we stayed in a 150-bedroom hotel and were treated like royalty. The staff and people could not have been more friendly and the place could not have been more different."
The great-grandfather was accompanied by lifelong friend Jack Barrett who had fought alongside him all those years ago and the pair made a special journey from Port Dixon to Samatra and then to Bengal where they were beaten back by the monsoon weather.
He said: "Me and Jack joined the navy together when we were 15 years old and travelled around India and Burma before being stationed in Malaysia."
The friends' trip could not have been more different from the first time they were in the country and not just because of the landscape.
Mr Pinkard explained: "When the staff at the hotel found out why we were there they phoned the newspapers who interviewed us and there was even a video made of our trip."
Mr Pinkard left Malaysia in 1946 and spent two weeks in America before being de-mobbed. He then became a civil servant, married Mary, his late wife of 49 years, and travelled the country before moving to Thornbury in 1980.
But he said he had enjoyed revisiting the past and added: "I cannot imagine the place as being horrible in any way. I was totally flabbergasted."
© Newsquest Media Group 2008