220924 Bmdr. James Arthur Tudor British Army 152 (Ayrshire Yeo) Field Regiment, C Troop, B Batt Royal Artillery from:Bradford West Yorks. My father, James Tudor refused to discuss his service in the Italian campaign, but one or two facts did come out that began a story that I could relate to in later life. That was the reality of war, and the realism of the trauma our relatives suffered, is emotional to say the least.
For example he told my Mother of dozing off under a tree, presumably at the Monte Cassino bombardment phase of the campaign when a raindrop landed on his helmet, and such was the tension of the situation he thought he had been blown up. Then in Rome he told her of searching ordinary houses with ordinary families in residence,and his feeling that how would he have felt if it had have been our home that foreign troops were searching.
In September 1944 he had a portrait painted by Artists of Florence at a studio that still exists (I visited it in 2011 on a trip to Italy) these paintings were done for many British soldiers, his name and detail was inscribed on the back.
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