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"Last month in Call Sign we read
about Hans Dooren in Holland, Jose Basadre in Spain and Nigel
Walters in Coventry. Well I got sent to Coventry and ended up in
Holland in a new TX4! Lets go back 3 summers; I got the call to pack my overnight bag because it was my turn for the early morning double shift at the far end of the Virgin / West Coast line. I was to be at Coventry Station for 6am and arrived to find around a dozen Dial-a-Cab drivers already there. The banter started to pass back and fourth. I mentioned that I had found the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and had located the grave of an old soldier in Holland who was my father’s best friend in the army during the Spring of 1945. Another DaC driver, John Farmer (H69) told us he was off to Arnhem in Holland for the anniversary of Operation Market Garden. If you’ve seen the film A Bridge to Far, you’ll know what that was about. John asked me to text him the details of the grave and he said he would try to find it for my father, which I thought was a nice thing to say. A few weeks later my phone rang; it was John calling to say he was in Holland and had found the Grave! He said he would be in touch. A few months later, I bumped into John at the Marshall’s hut at Morgan Stanley and he gave me an envelope containing pictures of the grave. When I showed the pictures to my father, he said he had always wanted to go back and take a look himself. So there was a problem how to get dad, mum, wife Tracey and two sons - David and Mark - along with myself, to Holland? Well, I had ordered a new Taxi for the middle of August this year and with other drivers telling me what a comfortable motorway cruiser the TX4 was, my problem was solved! August bank holiday Sunday, the Ferry was booked from Dover to Calais; priority loading ensured we were first on and first off into France, then Belgium and on into Holland. Around 225 miles later, we arrived at our overnight stop, Arnhem. A quick wash and brush up and back into the cab for evening dinner in Arnhem and a drive over the famous bridge. Early next morning after a 35-minute drive east, we entered the small Dutch town of Barchem where 62 years earlier, men had fought for the town and the crossroads there. We found the cemetery without too much trouble, parked the TX4 |
DaC’s Jon Robinson (E88) tells Call Sign how he took his TX4 to the Dutch war graves I WENT TO COVENTRY AND ENDED UP IN HOLLAND! |
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 The Mennen Gate contains names of the soldiers who fell in war but never had a marked grave Inset: Jon's cab sits quietly outside the gates to the war cemetery at Ypres in Belgium where they found the grave of his great grandfather Fred... |
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and went straight in. Like the photos John Farmer had given us was a single well-kept row of simple white gravestones. There were 25 in all - 12 Airmen and 13 soldiers - all killed on 1 April 1945. Almost in the centre were the remains of Cyril (Pearcey) Leonard Pearce, Private 1477924, 4th battalion Somerset Light Infantry. Aged just 18, an only son from Brentford and my father’s best mate. They were part of D Company, ordered to clear Barchem of German Soldiers. Unfortunately resistance was stiff; the town was sited on crossroads that the Germans were retreating to, back towards Germany. Dad told us as they advanced into the town alongside 3 tanks, a machine gun opened fire killing Pearcey. He was buried were he fell. Dad was a little disappointed that he couldn’t recall much of the town, but it was over 60 years earlier. But now it was back into the taxi and a 200-mile trip to Ypres (Ieper), Belgium. After a little searching we found the next cemetery on our list - Perth, China Wall - and great- grandfather, Lance Corporal Fred Sprules from the London |
Regiment, killed on 7 June 1917. This cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and named Perth after the Perthshire Rifles, then China Wall after the side wall of the trench dug there. This one was very large and well kept, containing soldiers from all parts of the commonwealth. After finding granddad’s grave and signing the visitor’s book, it was just a short drive into the beautiful town of Ypres. We parked up and had a look at the Mennen Gate, a huge arch built across the road to Mennen. This arch has names of soldiers who were never found and given a marked grave. At 8pm every evening, a short service is held inside the arch with the Belgium Fire Brigade playing the Last Post. This is a very moving ceremony and something well worth seeing. My new TX4 cab was superb; motorway cruising is effortless and reasonably quiet with over 500 miles covered in 2 hectic days. We turned heads wherever we went, almost feeling like celebrities! Shame it was back to work on the streets of London the next day…" Jon Robinson (E88) |
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