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Albert Coad |
Give old soldiers credit, says Albert
A BLIND, 93-year-old war veteran is calling for Camden to recognise the borough’s fallen heroes and retired soldiers in the wake of Remembrance Sunday.
Albert Coad, who lives in Highgate Road, Kentish Town, was decorated with a Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM), second only to the Victoria Cross, for his efforts on the frontline in Tunisia, 1941.
Most of the men he fought with are dead and buried now, but Mr Coad wants people to know a few of the men who served their country in the Second World War are still standing.
Mr Coad said: “I just want to let people in the borough know we’ve still got some heroes. We should have the names of our dead up on a memorial on Hampstead Heath. Or a nice bench commemorating us – our boys, our war heroes, our men. That would be nice wouldn’t it?”
He added: “I’m not holding my hand out but it would be nice to be recognised in some way. Christmas hampers, a march past, a week’s rent for nothing. I don’t grumble. I get by. But a bit of bread and jam with me tea wouldn’t go amiss.”
The retired Sergeant Major who served with the “Iron Fist” Rifle Brigade now lives by himself in a small one-bedroom flat in sheltered accommodation following the death of his wife 25 years ago.
A rare disintegration of his eye tissue, for which there is no cure, has rendered him almost entirely blind and restricts his travels away from his flat.
But during the war Mr Coad earned one of the highest military accolades available for saving two riflemen, a woman and a lieutenant from a minefield at the Kasserine Pass, Tunisia using a small handcart to go into the fray three times.
Now at the age of 93, he has a son and a daughter (both in their sixties), six grandchildren and five great granddaughters and has lived in Camden all his life.
Mr Coad said: “I’ve enjoyed my service – the hard times, and the good times. I’ve lost a lot of good friends, people I served with all through the war. I still see some of my friends, but they’re gradually fading away. I’m still here and I’d like to find others like me. Where are those heroes now?” |
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