Muckleford resident Gordon Tigg is a life member of the Maldon RSL Sub Branch and he was pretty chuffed to be given the honour of laying a wreath last Monday to commemorate those who fought in the Korean War.
Wearing a mask, the Korean War vet gently placed the wreath on the Cenotaph, took a step back and put his hand on his heart.
The TT spoke to Gordon afterwards and asked him what he thought of the service.
“It was different,” he said. “And it was an honour to be asked to lay the wreath.”
“It’s the second time I’ve done it – the last time was when the day was called Kapyong Day. It was on 22 April but they moved it to 27 July; I think they did it because it was too close to ANZAC Day. “
Gordon joined the British Army in 1953.
The 21-year-old was a mechanic in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
“I had to go through basic training at Shropshire and then after the passing out parade, I volunteered to go to Korea. I’ve learnt since then that nobody volunteers for everything but being young and naïve, I did.”
Queen Elizabeth II had just ascended to the throne (she was just four years older than Gordon at the time) and the young soldiers boarded a troop ship, the HMS Lancashire, in Liverpool and set sail for Japan en route to Pusan on the south-east tip of the Korean Peninsula.
“It’s funny how odd things stick in your memory. I remember when I got my kit, there was a sign stating ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here’, a phrase from Dante Alighieri’s work Inferno.
“I got kitted out and we were put in an armoured train and transported past Seoul to what they call the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone).
“I was attached to a little unit called the Light Aid Detachment (LAD) which meant I could do small mechanical jobs.
“I was only there for a couple of months when they decided to disband the LAD; they had a farewell party and invited a couple of well-known BBC entertainers, Jon Pertwee (the protagonist in the TV series Dr Who) and (comedian/actor) Bill Maynard.”
They moved Gordon to the motor transport section at Divisional Headquarters. He recalls it was a mobile unit and they had a warning signal called a ‘scram’ which saw soldiers rushing from their living quarters to man the battle stations or dig trenches in the defence line known as the Kansas Line.
“We were waiting for the Chinese to come but of course they didn’t come.”
After 13 months in Korea, the British Army sent him to North Africa for a year before he left the army.
“They asked me to sign on again and I said ‘No way!’, I’m not volunteering again.”
Gordon migrated to Australia in 1968 and got a job in Melbourne as a panel beater.
“I also spent 10 years in Queensland and that’s where I joined the RSL.”
Now 88, Gordon lives with his daughter, Melanie and her husband Matthew in Muckleford.
At the end of the interview, Gordon said he had enjoyed it and that he was a little bit surprised by how much he had remembered.
“It’s interesting how these things work in the back of your mind and you think you’ve forgotten it but you haven’t.”
Lest we forget.
Jeff Jones