William

“I spent 28 years of my life in the army, a lot of that time I was based in Burnham. It wasn’t until I got out of the army when I settled in Christchurch permanently. When I retired from the army in 1984, I managed a war veterans home at Church Corner. I did that for 18 years, and I thought, I’ve been here that long now, I might as well stay.

Initially, I went to Malaya. We were in Malacca, Terendak Camp, a big Commonwealth camp which was Australian, New Zealand and British forces. It had brilliant facilities; there were beach clubs, swimming pools, a shopping complex and a movie theatre, you name it!

While I was there I was posted to Vietnam, a 12 month tour and it was my duty as a regular force soldier to go. I had comments like ‘oh you’re a married man with three kids’. Well sorry, you don’t just put your hand up for the good jobs, it’s every job. I found Vietnam an experience that will never ever be forgotten. People say, what a waste of time, and it was. It was a waste of time, waste of money, waste of life. But you don’t know that at the time. Hindsight is the most wonderful thing in the world.

What it did do for me personally was allow me to identify myself, was I a professional soldier? I believe I was. Infantry allows you to identify how a close knit community can survive very well, and we did that. We were very close knit. Of the 180 guys in our company, every one of those guys you could trust. They were brilliant. And I’m talking about 19-20 year old boys. I was fortunate in one respect, I was 31 when I went to Vietnam. My young soldiers were 20. For 12 months we lived together, cried together, drunk together, we did everything together. They could almost have called me dad, but with a great deal of respect for me, they obviously didn’t.”

– William