"My Grandad, Leonard (Len) Garnham, was in the pit as a young boy, so whenever he could he loved to go in the country for long walks to get fresh air in his lungs. Edale to Castleton was his favourite.
On his first date with my Nan, Jenny (known as Ginny or Gin) he took her on this walk. Well, they got to the top, and the mist came in, and they were lost for the biggest part of the date.... bet it was lost time well spent! Anyway she never let it drop; you can imagine, on her first date.
By the way, he also loved his pub, but could never find his way home, so when she was expecting my Mum, as a joke she got him the compass, second-hand, and said "he would always get home, drunk or not".
At the outbreak of the Second World War he enlisted in the Royal Artillery in 1939 and was stationed in Malta, and with him went the compass, so he could always get home.
At some stage during his posting in Malta he volunteered for the newly formed SAS (formerly S.O.E.). In 1944 my Nan received a letter from the War Office stating that her husband, my Grandad, was missing in action, you know the one. She was told that he was flying over North Africa and was shot down and no body was ever found. But the sad thing was that on his last leave home he forgot to take the compass back to war with him.
Nan never believed he was dead because they said there was no body, and she said
"he would have found his way home if he'd remembered to take the compass".
Gran died still believing he was not dead. My Mum, after Nan died, got in touch with the War Office and found out he was in the SAS and his war grave is in Bone Cemetery in Algiers. The War Office also sent her his 5 medals, including the Africa Star and the Italy Star (for serving in Malta).
My Nan was always led to believe they never found the body because nobody ever told anybody anything in those days.
Many years later, however, after Nan died, my Mum found the details and discovered that his body, along with four others, had been washed up on the beach in North Africa.
My Dad still goes down to London to attend regimental dinners since my Mum died".
Gunner Garnham, pictured above, who died in 1944, aged just 24, and his pocket lens compass, made by F. Barker & Son, hallmarked silver and made in London in 1911, that he left behind.
