Name: Douglas

When did you join up?  I understand you were a Royal Engineer.

I was. I joined up in 1944 and came out in November 1947

Where were you on VE day?

I was in Kirkcudbright, in the south of Scotland

I was a sapper at the time and doing survey work and building roads

How did you hear the news that the war had ended

One of my friends came in after I had returned with a 3 ton truck and said “It’s all over, and we can bugger off home”.

Have you had any contact with German people since?

When I was at Oxford I knew quite a lot of German people at college and so on and I have rather lost touch with them since then.

What do you think of Twinning?

I think it’s a very good idea but I’d like to put in a bit of an idea, I suppose something I think which would be even more valuable; I think villages in the UK should adopt a village in Africa or India which in many ways is better thing than twinning.

AT: I think you’d be interested to know that Chantale who organised this event does work in South America with an organisation called Mano mano and has raised a lot of money for poor people in South America. So you’re not the only one!