Fergus Anckorn: an amazing story

[wafflycat]

On the BBC News channel is a half-hour slot called "Hard Talk" Usually it's some politician who is given a bit of a hard questioning by the presenter. The most recent one is different. Inspiring. Thought-provoking. Sad. Human.

http://bbc.co.uk/i/pgvfp/

 

[ComedyPilot]

That was possibly the most humbling 25 minutes of my life, hearing all he had to endure.

He was spot on too, why can't they (politicians) sign all their bits of paper before a war, and save the bloodshed?

 

[Aperitif]

That's really interesting and apt, thanks Waffly.
Last weekend, my Mum was 90. During the preceeding week she wanted the only photo of her brother Maurice framed, so I did it.
She saw him for the last time when she was 13 and he went away to the Army.
And then we talked about him playing with her at Clapham Junction, buying stale cakes, selling favours on Boat Race day - all that stuff. She never really knew what happened to him after he went away...
He was a railway worker too

 

[wafflycat]

One of the reasons I was interested to watch it was that I had an uncle who was a WWII Japanese POW. I was skeletal when freedom came and he stayed that way for the rest of his life. He died in the 70s from cancer of the gullet. Apparently that was a common way for the survivors to die - a mixture of the ill-treatment, poor food and smoking.