I AM writing to say thank you for the piece written about my father, Mr Frank Gilbert. It was good and factual.

I am the eldest son of Frank and Lily Gilbert. There were five children, Marge, Harold, Dorothy, Douglas and the baby of the family, Roy, who you already know.

I will be 90 years old in February.

Like a lot more families of that era, times were hard at times. I was educated at Sanford Street School where the headmasters at the time were Mr Brazier J.P. and later on Mr Bullock.

Both were strict and knew how to use the cane but we left knowing right from wrong.

I was a wagon builder in the GWR works. At times I would be working building the wagon and my father would be working underneath doing the brakes, so even at work I had to behave myself.

I moved near to Birmingham after the loss of my wife.

My daughter who how lives next door me said she wanted me here so she could look after me, which she couldn’t do if I stayed in Stratton so that’s the reason I moved at the age of 72.

Roy did a great deal of research on my father and we learned quite a lot that we did not know, even though my father had told me quite a lot of what it was like in Australia. I think Roy and Chris went there at least three times.

When the Second World War broke out my father went to Australia House in London to volunteer to join up once again.

He was told he had already done his bit in the last one and to go home to his family but that was the sort of man he was. He was a sergeant in the Home Guard, so at least he was back in uniform.

I did six years in the Royal Engineers during the Cold War and was stationed in Germany for five years near the Russian border.

I have a son who lives in Holmfirth, Yorkshire who was born in Hanover 1951 as I had my wife with me in married quarters.

Roy was in Malaya with the RASC as a dispatcher, so we all followed dad.

Thank you once again for the article and I would like to wish STFC all the best of luck for the coming season.

Harold Gilbert, Water Orton, Birmingham