By Bik from Southampton.
My grandad, on my mum’s side, led the team that built the collapsible canoes used by the Cockleshell Heroes in WWII. He ran a woodworking team in Boscombe during the war, a master carpenter known for precision and patience. He could shape the wooden frame to the 16th of an inch accuracy needed to keep them watertight under pressure. The Ministry of Defence quietly recruited men like him – skilled hands who could shape wood to the tightest tolerances – and they were told almost nothing about what they were making or why.
He never spoke of it for decades. He honestly believed he was still bound by the Official Secrets Act, so he kept it to himself. Not even my nan knew!
It wasn’t until near the end of his life that he mentioned it at all, showing us a black-and-white photograph of him and his team in Boscombe, standing beside the boats they’d built.
The photo has gone now, probably lost in a bundle of old newspapers bound for recycling. But the story stayed with me: a man who replaced the wooden balustrades along Boscombe Pier and, quietly, helped shape one of the most daring missions of the war, without ever once asking for recognition.
He would have been deeply saddened to see scenes we are witnessing in Southampton, of young men draped in the flag he served his country under, giving Nazi salutes in the middle of the high street in broad daylight, spurred on by the likes of Farage, Yaxley-Lennon and Musk.
The flag meant duty to Pop Os, not dominance. He didn’t need to weaponise it to prove his worth. Meanwhile, these cosplay patriots wrap themselves in it like toddlers in a superhero cape, then disgrace everything it’s supposed to stand for.
I’m almost glad he’s not alive to see it.
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