“I’m glad my town is honouring the father I never knew.”
Despite never having met his father, Roger Webster now sees his face every day when he leaves the house. When the 83-year-old’s father, Hedley William Benjamin Webster, lost his life while serving in Singapore during World War Two, his mother was expecting him. In commemoration of the town’s fallen soldiers, the aircraftsman’s image is now one of 67 that adorn the streets of Stapleford, Nottinghamshire.
Roger’s heart skipped a beat when he first saw his father’s picture hanging from a lamppost at the end of his street. According to him, his father volunteered as a Royal Air Force reserve after working at a Stapleford hosiery mill. He was sent to the distant east. He was travelling by ship to Singapore at the time, and my mother was expecting me,” Roger remarked. He claimed that his father had been assigned to protect a vital naval base that served as the eastern fulcrum of the British Empire.
Roger’s father then sent telegrams to his wife, Roger’s mother, the last of which arrived the day before Japan invaded Singapore in 1942. Roger stated: “In the message, it said ‘all is well, keep smiling’, just those words, nothing else.” Prime Minister Winston Churchill later referred to the fall of Singapore as “the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history.” Roger’s mother reared him in his grandparents’ house after his father passed away. He stated: “I never saw my mother cry, but I think [if she saw the banner] there would be some tears.”
According to Roger, he had frequently gone to a war memorial in Singapore that bore his father’s name. For more than two years, Lorraine Longford, a councillor on the Stapleford Town Council, has collaborated with the Stapleford History Group to bring historical figures, such as Roger’s father, to life. The result of that effort are the banners, which were initially put up on October 18 and proudly feature the pictures of the soldiers whose names are written on the town’s war memorial. Longford located the images of 67 families out of the 81 names on the memorial.
The portrait of Pte Samuel Arthur Patrick, who was a member of the Hampshire Regiment during World War II and passed away in India at the age of 23, is also on exhibit. Samuel, the youngest of five children, lived through the war but passed away from malaria long before Christmas. He was laid to rest in India’s Kirkee War Cemetery. Lynda Tennant, 62, and Jean Thompson, 71, his nieces, both of whom reside in Stapleford, are “proud” to see his photo.
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