I WONDER if anyone has information about one of Rogerstone’s characters, but not locally born. I met him a number of times, the last time in the early to mid 1980s.
Although he was a bit of a joker, the last conversation I had with him was more serious about a mutual interest in that I was now parachuting and he had been parachuting during the Second World War.
From what I had been told he was one of the British 1st Airborne parachuted into Arnhem in September 1944, a Dutch village where they were to defend the bridge for two days, but held out for nine until they ran out of ammunition. Although surrounded, they were ordered to retreat and this person was one of those who managed to get back through enemy lines.
He would have been involved in more action later and I wonder whether anyone in the area ever documented his military career. His name? I knew him as many in Rogerstone did, Cockney George.
Shaun McGuire, Mole Close, Bettws, Newport
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