206980 Rfm. Edward William Swan British Army 2nd Btn. (Tower Hamlets Rifles) Rifle Brigade from:Poplar My da,d Edward Swan joined Tower Hamlets Rifles (Territorials) as soon as he was 18 in 1937 and was an enthusiastic weekend soldier following on from his days in the Boys' Brigade. He was encouraged to join the Rifles by his Boys' Brigade leader who had fought for them in WW1. His mother was dead against it, his brother offered him a job as an apprentice at Plesseys assuring him that he would be in a reserved occupation, but my dad would hear none of it. I think he was attached to the 2nd batt. Rifle Brigade and it was the 1st that Churchill sent them to Calais where most of them were captured in 1940. Dad spent his time in England and Scotland where he trained as a PTI and played in the band (2nd cornet!!).
His first posting was to North Africa I think in 1941/2. Here he was attached to the LRDG (Long Range Desert Group) and was involved in an action at a place called Snipe Ridge where his "mob" and members of the Royal Artillery were charged with holding up the Afrika Corps for 24 hours while the rest of the army retreated to Alamein. This they succeeded in doing and I believe some VCs were won there for their actions. He was mentioned in dispatches. I only found this out by doing a great deal of research - he only once said anything about it and that was to his grandson who asked why he had a bar on his Africa Star. His reply was "That was for killing Germans son". Just about the only reference to his wartime fighting experiences!
He was in Africa until the end of fighting there and was then involved first in the retaking of Sicily and then in the Italian Landings - I believe he may have been attached to the American group that landed at Anzio and got stuck - he had a very low opinion of the Americans as fighting troops, but as people it was completely opposite. From here he was posted to Monte Cassino as a stretcher bearer with another guy from the Tower Hamlets Rifles whose name I sadly failed to take down when I went there a few years ago. The other guy died, my dad survived but at some cost to his mental health. I have no idea what he witnessed but I know that he was there for the entire period of the operation and must have seen some terrible sights. He went on to Naples where my grandmother was convinced I had an older half brother or sister. He received regular letters from Naples well into 1947/8 when he was already married to my mum. He was transferred to admin. staff and continued north through Rome where his grudge against Lady Astor was born - apparently she called the troops in Italy "D Day dodgers" finishing up in May 1945 in Austria where he was demobbed classified as B2 health-wise.
He loved the early part of his army life, but the mental and physical toll on his health only really became apparent in the late 1980s when he suffered a breakdown leading to depression and then was diagnosed with throat cancer from smoking - he had given it up but the damage had been done at Cassino where he reckoned it was normal to smoke upwards of 100-150+ cigarettes a day.
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