Focus on VE Day
- Amy Rowlinson
- 14 minutes ago
- 4 min read
‘No words of mine can adequately express the debt which is owed to such men.’
Major General Walter Morland Hutton CB, CBE, DSO, MC, MA - 3 May 1981
(Extract from his Foreword in Tanks Across the Desert: The War Diary of Jake Wardrop by George Forty)
I agree with these words penned by my grandfather, as today, marking the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, the two-minute national silence honours a generation who fought for our freedom and whose courage and sacrifice shaped the world we now inhabit. For me, this day is profoundly personal as I reflect on legacy, family and purpose honouring both my grandfathers who walked very different wartime paths during WW2.
My paternal grandfather, Major General Walter Morland Hutton CB, CBE, DSO, MC, MA, known to many as ‘Fearless Jim’, was a professional soldier in every sense. His distinguished titles speak of a career built on service, strategic brilliance and extraordinary leadership. In the pivotal Battle of El Alamein, Fearless Jim commanded the 5th Tank Regiment.
In Tanks Across the Desert: The War Diary of Jake Wardrop, author George Forty describes my grandfather, Fearless Jim, as ‘one of the greatest guys who ever joined the Army’, writing that ‘the lads would have done anything for him and gone anywhere with him – if he had said we were going to make a frontal attack on the gates of hell, they would have been off like a shot.’
Jim’s wartime leadership was of precision and pressure, high command and deep respect from all those he led and fought alongside. He spoke directly with Churchill and discussed tactics with Monty (Field Marshal Montgomery). Even after severe injury, Jim returned to the front time and again. He embodied honour, duty and fearlessness in action.
Then, there was my maternal grandfather, George. A reluctant conscript who preferred pen over pistol. Captured early in the war, George was not keen to fight at all, describing himself as ‘a fairly unheroic soldier’. But his brave deeds showed themselves in different ways: internal, reflective, enduring. Held as a prisoner of war from 19 June 1940 until VE Day, 8 May 1945, George never attempted escape. Instead, George taught himself mental liberation; how to escape from the prison of your own mind and in doing so demonstrated tools for resilience, courage and meaning.
On 14 April 1945, marched out of his POW camp, George narrowly survived a friendly fire strafing incident when mistaken for enemy troops where 14 British officers were killed and 46 were wounded. Then, on the day of his repatriation, exactly 80 years ago today on VE Day, the plane scheduled just before George's one crashed on take-off. He stood on the runway witness to the tragic loss of every passenger on board. George arrived home without medals on his chest but instead carried messages of humanity, hope and the power of purpose deep inside his heart.
Decades later, from beyond his grave, George and I co-authored a book together. It was from our deep connection of memories of our friendship and the synchronicity of discovering his Commonplace Scrapbook which gave birth to Focus on Why: Create a purposeful way of life - shortlisted in the 2025 Business Book Awards in the Work and Life category.
On 30 September 1942, George wrote in his scrapbook: ‘Proposal to write ‘Way of Life’ to meet the need for a planned life, to meet every circumstance of life, every facet of living.’
Eighty years later, I realised I was doing exactly that; fulfilling a vision he’d articulated during his WW2 POW captivity. Without knowing it, I’d picked up his pen and fulfilled his proposal.
Then, in another entry dated 25 March 1945, George wrote: ‘Doubtless it too would contribute something to history, but a later chronicler must speak of this.’ Reading that line I realised, he was speaking directly to me. In writing this book, I was to be that ‘later chronicler’.
Legacy is not a distant concept, it’s deeply personal and, simultaneously, universal. My grandfathers may have stood on opposite ends of the military spectrum: one commanding tanks in the desert, the other surviving in silence. One’s brave deeds etched in stone, the other, in memory. Yet both stood guardian over what mattered most: common treasures, memories of friendship and brave deeds, all in service of lives lived with purpose, courage and love.
Last year I found a card from my beloved grandmother Ruth, George's wife, dated 2 May 1997, with it were two photos of George's grave. She'd written: ‘Amy, for you to keep among your treasures, my darling. Ruth x’. That card reminds me that the most meaningful treasures aren’t always cast in metal or stone, they can be simple, yet precious memories of friendship.
In the entrance hall of the Victory Services Club, there’s an engraved stone signed by Winston Churchill, with this inscription which reads: 'This Victory Club for ex-servicemen and women, given by the nation as a memorial to fallen comrades and as a tribute to those who returned, stands guardian of the common treasures and memories of friendship and brave deeds.'
The El Alamein room of the Victory Services Club therefore made a deeply meaningful location for me to launch our book, Focus on Why. Especially as it was on 29 October 2024, exactly 26 years after George’s passing and 82 years exactly since Day 7 of the Battle of El Alamein. At that launch, just as they had on 27 April 2022 at their great grandmother’s funeral, my husband and our children all stood guardian alongside me of these 'common treasures and memories of friendship and brave deeds'.
Legacy isn’t only what’s left behind though, it’s also how you choose to live today. So, on this special commemorative VE Day, I ask you:
What common treasures have been passed on to you?
What memories of friendship, large or small, do you hold close to your heart?
What brave deeds will you take on in your life?
And how will you stand guardian of them all?
With love, memory and purpose
Amy
ACTION POINT: How will you stand guardian of what really matters?
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