Although he had been settled in Laindon for many years, David Whiteman was actually born in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, on August 7, 1919.

Like many boys of his generation he left school when he was just 14.

“My older brother was at college. He wanted to be a draftsman but I wanted to work with my hands,” said David back in 2016.

“My mother managed to get me a job with a local painter and decorator with the promise of apprenticeship in the trade.”

David’s interest in first aid was sparked in 1936 when he met a friend who worked in first aid for the engineering company, Vickers Armstrong.

“Through him I got interested in first aid and I went to night school for ten weeks and passed with flying colours. My pal then got me to join Furness First Aid Voluntary group and I soon found myself on duty in cinemas and concert halls,” recalled David.

“One big advantage was that you got a good seat to watch the film!”

Being a first aider sealed David’s fate when he received his call up papers in November 1939 to join the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). Formed in 1898, the non combatant specialist corps provided medical services to British army members and their families. Historically the unit only use their weapons in self defence

David remembered vividly his first day called up into the army:

“It was a cold winter morning in November 1939 and I found myself on the way to Dalkeith in Scotland, arriving at around 6.30pm.

“There was about 15 of us and we were met by a sergeant who soon had us outside in the road in a column of three with an oil lamp front and back as we marched to Newbattle Abbey, a few miles away where we were to do our training. “On arriving we had a hot meal, a mug of cocoa and then off to bed. The next day we were kitted with our uniforms and over the next few days we go to know what army life was all about.

“Just before Christmas I passed out with a third class nursing orderly but I also spent a few days in the sick bay at Edinburgh Castle with vaccine fever.”

David was soon transferred to the 125 Field Ambulance attached to the 42nd division and before long he was on his way to Cherbourg in France. “Over the next few months all we seemed to do was to move from pillar to post,” he recalled.

David soon found himself embroiled in the Dunkirk evacuation. Code-named ‘Operation Dynamo’ and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, Allied soldiers were evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk between May 26 and June 4, 1940. Large numbers of Belgian, British, and French troops had been cut off and surrounded by the German army.

David remembered: “On the beaches it was hell. Soldiers were mortared, bombed and gunned with no cover at all. I was treating soldiers for shrapnel and bullet wounds and trying to get them evacuated.

In the early stages of the evacuation they were getting the men in batches of 50 but it soon turned out this was not working and it was every man for himself. I soon realised the seriously wounded would have to be left behind on the beaches - I could cope with the walking wounded.”

Although back home on safe turf, there was no let up. “We arrived in Newbury and took over a church hall and immediately resumed First Aid refresher courses,” he said.

While in Newbury there was also a serendipitous meeting for

David. He met and fell in love with Eileen Collings, whose parents

had moved to the Berkshire town to escape the London bombing.

The couple were married not long after. But the war was to continue

for David. He volunteered for parachute training and was accepted to join the 1st Airborne Division at Harwich Hall near Chesterfield. Later he became a member of the 181st Air Landing

Field Ambulance Based in Boston, Lincolnshire, he trained extensively in gliders, getting ready for “any operation they were called to cope with”. He explained: “On May 15, 1943, we set sail in a troop ship for

North Africa, arriving 10 days later. We moved up near Tunis to get ready for the invasion of Sicily. It was here that my world for a time turned upside down.

“We were given revolvers for our own protection and ordered to clean them, mine went off accidentally. Lucky for me my gun was pointing forward but the bullet hit a brick sticking up on the floor and hit my mate Peter Bossford in the knee, putting him out of action for quite a while.

“My immediate reaction was I was going to get a court martial but with all the preparations for the invasion of Sicily going on I got away with a good telling off. I felt awful and still get flashbacks about it today.”

Due to the loss of life he witnessed, David found it hard to talk about the Sicilian campaign. which began in July 1943 and was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation.

He was also involved in another famous military campaign, Operation Market Garden, otherwise known as the Battle for Arnhem when the Allies attempted to capture several strategically important

bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines. However, mismanagement and poor planning resulted in its failure and with thousands of Allied soldiers being killed - many picked off by the Germans one by one as they parachuted into the Netherlands.

David recalled the day the troops set off for Holland. He said: “On Sunday, September 17, we boarded the gliders and off we went to Holland. It was quite a sight over southern England seeing all the planes and gliders forming up. On nearing our landing zone we got some flak but luckily my glider got through and we made a perfect landing on a sunny afternoon.”

David and his first aid colleagues quickly went about treating casualties on the ground as many men has sustained broken arms and legs as a result of the gliders crashing upon landing.

“After treating the injured soldiers we moved on to the town of Oosterbeek, 5km west of Arnhem, to an old vicarage owned by housewife Kate ter Host whereby Captain Martin asked her if we could use her house as a regimental aid post.” This is a scene depicted in the 1977 blockbuster A Bridge Too Far where Kate is played by Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann.

David said: “We were there for eight days and I am very proud to have talked to Kate on many occasions. When we arrived she had many wounded soldiers in the house along with her family.”

Kate was later labelled the “Angel of Arnhem” and was particularly remembered for the way she would spend hours reading the Bible to dying soldiers, trying to make their last hours as comfortable as

possible.

“Surrounded by noises of war, while her home was under fire, she had intimate and personal conversations with the badly wounded soldiers and she read books for them while bullets were whizzing around the house,” said David.

As the days went by David and his team were running short of vital medical equipment and even inch of space within the house was taken up with wounded soldiers.

“When you see soldiers with their guts hanging out, others with legs blown off, others with shrapnel wounded and many with no visible outward wounds - all dead - you realise what war is all about,” said David.

As the Germans closed in the word to evacuate the house came through and David made a successful dead of night crossing of the Rhine - back to the safety of

British troops across the river. He was flown back to England but immediately he fell ill. He spent some time in hospital believed to be from a fever. “They thought it could be been caused by some goats’ milk that I had drunk in North Africa,” he said.

David was awarded the War and Victory medals and the Italy Star and was discharged from the army in June 1946. He returned home to Eileen and the couple were happily married for 69 years until she died of cancer in June 2011.

They had one daughter, Brenda. After the war the couple lived in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) until returning to the UK in 1978.

Kate ter Horst died in 1992 but a few years ago David returned to Arnhem and went back to Kate’s house as the memories of the days he spent there were still so vivid.

He tracked down and even met up with some of Kate’s children, including her daughter Sophie. Upon entering the grounds of the home he said: “As I entered the garden and saw the pond I immediately got the feeling of peace and tranquillity - so very different to 70 years ago.”

Although Operation Market Garden was considered a failure, David believed the soldiers who fought in Arnhem were heroes. He passionately stressed to the Echo how he wanted the heroes of the campaign to be remembered for their sacrifice.

He said: “Their fight is considered an example of courage and endurance and one of the greatest feats of the Second World War.”