COLONEL CHARLES G. DELANY
A PONTEFRACT FAMILIES AMAZING
MILITARY JOURNEY
CHARLES G. DELANY
PROLOGUE
In
January 1922 my father William Arthur Delany, following in the footsteps
of his father, Lt. Col. C. W. Delany OBE, late of the Army Gym Staff and
founder member of the Army Physical Training Corps, joined the Regular
Army as a private soldier in the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.
His
recruit training was at Pontefract Barracks, the Regimental Depot and
Headquarters of the Regiment. On completion of his recruit training he
was posted to the 1st Battalion K.O.Y.L.I. which was part of the British
Rhine Army of occupation following World War One, the British Battalion
being stationed in Cologne.
In
1925 he returned to the regimental Depot as a Sergeant Instructor and
whilst in Pontefract he met Sarah Rebecca Wakefield, and they were
married in April 1927.
A
return posting to the 1st Battalion K.O.Y.L.I. in Dover and Tidworth saw
the arrival of their first child Charles Gerald (the writer) on the 22nd
December 1928 in the maternity wing of Louis Margaret’s Hospital,
Tidworth.
Their second child Doreen May arrived on the 28th December
1930.
A further tour as an instructor at the Regimental Depot saw the
addition to the family of Peter George, born on the 13th December 1933.
Whilst
in Pontefract the Duchess of York visited the regiment as its
Colonel-in-Chief and called on the Delany household, meeting the family
and being introduced.
The
next move was a return to the 1st Battalion K.O.Y.L.I. stationed in
Gibraltar, their fourth child Kenneth arrived on the 13th March 1936.
In
1937 a posting to the Far East was for a period of not less than six
years and it was in this year that my father was posted to the 2nd
Battalion K.O.Y.L.I. in Burma.
Life
was to change dramatically for the Delany family. They were most
fortunate that their journey to Burma was on board a P&O liner
rather that what would have been a most uncomfortable journey on a
normal troopship.
A
four week voyage traversing the Mediterranean, Suez Canal, Red Sea and
Indian Ocean saw the family arrive in Rangoon, a train journey to Maymyo
followed where the story begins…
Charles G. Delany
|
