Former teacher only penned wartime memories years later

Easington-born George West taught hundreds of young children in the fifties, sixties and seventies, at Baring Street, Whiteleas, and Mortimer Road primary schools in South Shields.

He was never a head or even a deputy head teacher, preferring to devote his career to his true vocation, teaching young people to read and write, and enthusing them with his own interests of art, music and the natural world.

Before becoming a teacher, however, he spent seven difficult years as a soldier, seeing the Second World War through from start to finish, one of only 14 who returned unscathed from a company of 240 Royal Engineers, originally based in Jarrow.

The two books, By Patience, Perseverance, and a Bottle of Sweet Oil and The Snail, At Length, Reached Jerusalem, both titles taken from an ancient Persian proverb, tell the tale of his wartime experiences.

It was only fifty years after the war that he began recording his experiences during the conflict, writing them in old school exercise books.

His daughter, Effie Cadwallader, has spent the last few years transcribing, condensing and editing his words into a readable and entertaining narrative.

She said although he will never see the finished product, she believes he would be pleased that his account of the experiences of an ordinary soldier is now recorded for all time, a copy of which in now held by the Imperial War Museum.

The books, priced at £8.99 and £10.99, are available from Amazon and YouCaxton Publications.