15 Council Reports He found he was part of a mighty convoy of some 800 vehicles driving from Leopoldsburg in Belgium to Nijmegen in The Netherlands. The 63 mile journey took eleven hours. Around two million people turned out to welcome the Arnhem veterans accompanying the convoy. Some of the older Dutch people held placards saying “Thank you”. For Lofty this was an intensely moving, life-changing experience. Ever since then, he visited Arnhem often and did his best to let surviving veterans know how much they were valued. He helped old comrades meet, encouraged others to join commemorations and helped family members find the graves of their loved ones. His regular visits to Oosterbeek War Cemetery brought home to him that while the Cemetery contained the graves of those whose bodies had been found and identified, there was no locally accessible memorial to those pilots who had died who had no known grave. He set about remedying this, first for members of the Glider Pilot Regiment and later for members of the 7th Battalion, King’s Own Scottish Borderers (KOSBs), who the pilots had flown to Arnhem in their gliders. The gliders were Horsas and the pilots’ memorial takes the form of a representation of a Horsa’s tailfin. That for the KOSB’s is rectangular with a design based on the KOSB tartan. As intended, each memorial shows the names of those regiment members who died but have no known grave. Both memorials are displayed at the Glider Museum in Wolfheze. They are beautiful, as befits items of such sensitivity and importance. Some years ago Lofty created a friendship group called SOGs (don’t bother) which met in a caravan in Great Horkesley. Lofty was Sogmeister. The group continues to meet although membership has varied over the years. Lofty was a wonderful man, full of consideration, kindness and wit. A natural leader. Irreplaceable. Patrick Mills
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTA4ODM=