This photo appeared on our letters page and brought back some poignant memories for Brenda Robshaw.
For she is the 11-year-old girl seen on the right and they were trimming up the family home on Highlands Avenue in Almondbury to welcome back her elder brother, Walter Whiting, in September 1953.
Walter had been serving with the Royal Fusiliers in Korea and while defending a hill he was shot, badly wounded and captured.
After more than two years in captivity he was being released.
His brother, Derek, is seen on the step ladder while Brenda’s mum, Annie, is looking at the camera.
Also in the picture is Walter’s sister, Edith, holding her daughter, Angela, and son Randall is the small boy with the blond hair.
Brenda, who moved from Almondbury to Shelley two years ago, said that at first Walter was listed as missing presumed killed in action – but then it was later confirmed he was a prisoner.
“My mother’s hair turned white almost overnight with worry,” said Brenda. “Walter had suffered two bullet wounds to his chest. He never talked about his war experiences although just two days before he died 18 months ago he said that he had, in effect, been granted a second life. Many of his army friends did not survive.”
She recalls that her dad, Fred, went down to Southampton to pick Walter up and also arranged for the ice-cream van to go to Highlands Avenue and gave him enough money so every child who lived on the road could have a free ice-cream.”
Brenda is married to Winston and the couple have four childen, eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
