Daughters recall father's war

4:18pm Friday 9th May 2008

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THE memoirs of an army officer from Malvern who fought the German invasion in France and was taken prisoner at Dunkirk have just been published.

The experiences of Roger Eustace Cleverley are recounted in Battlefield to Castle Keep, which has been compiled by his twin daughters Tricia Lewis, who still lives in Malvern, and Rosie Smith, who now resides in Devon.

"Our father's wartime memoirs were originally written for us without any thought that they would be published," they write in the book's prologue.

"They are based on pencil-written notebooks which we discovered amongst items accumulated during his time as a POW."Mr Cleverley joined the Territorial Army in 1937 as a second lieutenant, and when was broke out was called up into the Worcestershire Regiment full time.

He managed to get a few days leave to marry Barbara, daughter of Mr and Mrs A L Hunt of Court Road, before the regiment was shipped to France to hold back the Nazi menace.

The first half of the book describes his experiences as the Allied forces fell back before the German advance, until his brigade was attacked by a Waffen-SS unit and he was wounded and taken prisoner.

The rest of the book describes his life in a series of POW camps - in one of which he met Reg Bamber, also from Malvern, who after the war became curate of Holy Trinity at Link Top.

His time as a prisoner included escape attempts, and along the way, he met famous names such as Douglas Bader, and ended up in the notorious Colditz Castle.

Battlefield to Castle Keep was printed by Aspect Design of Newtown Road, and is available at Beacon Books, Worcester Road.