Preston war veteran Cyril was 'a tiny man with a big heart'

Cyril Parkinson died in Royal Preston Hospital in midweek at the age of 97.

As a young man, Cyril witnessed the horrors of war at the D-Day landings in Normandy where he celebrated his 21st birthday.

The Fulwood veteran, who served as a dispatch rider, recalled one moment of horror with the sinking of the MV Derrycunihy.

Speaking to the Post in 2019, Cyril, who ran errands and delivered messages for the 8th Battalion of the Middlesex Machine Gun Regiment, remembered: "It was too rough to land, so we had to stay aboard for another night, anchored near to Juno Beach.

"I wanted our boat to go down - I was that ill. Most of us were.

"I was terrible. I was sick all the way. And I mean sick. If truth were known I wanted to stuff it.

"But the morning after it had all calmed down and I was feeling better.

"I was leaning on the railings just wondering what I was doing there, waiting to be unloaded and I was actually looking at the boat anchored next to us when up it went.

"As soon as they started the engines it drew a mine.

"That was a bad start.

"It killed loads of people and the ship broke in two. It was terrible.

"We were lucky because there was line after line of ships and we could have been on that one."

The disaster killed 183 men from the 43rd (Wessex) Reconnaissance Regiment, as well as 25 of the ship’s crew.

Cyril had qualified to drive a Horton 16H bike just two weeks before D-Day.

By his own admission, he was not a natural seaman, as he soon discovered when he fell violently sick during the long channel crossing.

As a young boy, he instead dreamed of taking to the skies and serving with the Royal Air Force.

Together, the RAF and United States Army Air Force made the largest ever crew of its kind, having been combined to create the 2nd Tactical Air Force, or 2TAF.

Cyril was ecstatic when he was given a chance to join this almighty team, having secured a job as a wireless operation air gunner following an interview in Warrington.

But his dreams were dashed when he later failed a medical test because of his poor eyesight.

On his return to Lancashire, he tried to join the Glider Pilot Regiment after seeing a notice in the window of the city’s army recruiting office.

But he was again rejected because of his vision.

After the war Cyril soon settled back in Preston where his passion for motorbikes and Preston North End grew even stronger when he met his wife Vera in 1953.

They were both on shift work at Orr’s Mill in Bamber Bridge.

They were married at the Emmanuel Church, Fulwood, which he still regularly attended in his nineties.

And when he fitted a sidecar to his motorcycle, the couple took to the roads together and travelled the length and breadth of the UK.

The couple, who had no children, lived on Symounds Avenue. Vera died five years ago at the age of 85.

For the last four months Cyril was a resident of Oxford House care home, Gartsang Road, Fulwood.

Cyril worked for the gas board emptying metres before joining Vera at British Aerospace in Samlesbury. where he was a clerical worker.

His nephew Gary Watkins, who together with his wife Sharon, and cousin Joan Moss looked after Cyril, said: "He retired from there. He loved it. He still talked about it to the day he died."

Gary, an ambulance driver for Brown's Funeralcare, Preston, which is handling Cyril's funeral, described Cyril - who was just around 5ft tall - as "a tiny man with a big heart".

He added: "He had a brilliant sense of humour. he was a brilliant man. I loved him to death, everybody loved him."

Gary said Cyril still kept in touch with ex-servicemen's associations such as Blind Veterans.

Cyril's funeral will take place on Wednesday, March 3.

Full details have yet to be confirmed. It has not been decided which church will hold the service, but cremation will follow it at Preston Crematorium.

Cyril's coffin will be draped with the Union flag and as well as a procession of old army motorbikes and jeeps, a bugler will play the Last Post and a piper will play the bagpies at the crematorium.

Covid restrictions will apply.