George Chandler: Haywards Heath Golf Club member, D-Day veteran and a man well worth honouring

After the outbreak of World War II, a young lad entered a recruiting office in Lewisham and told a big fat lie. "I'm 18 and I want to join up," he declared. He fooled no one and was sent on his way.

A few weeks later he was back. Same lie, same response. And so the pattern was set, until the exasperated recruiters finally gave in. 

Thus it was that a fresh-faced 17-year-old Londoner, still underage and "just wanting to join in", headed off to war.

That boy - George Chandler, an honorary lifetime member of Haywards Heath Golf Club - will celebrate his 100th birthday next year. He is currently much in demand, ahead of June 6 and the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

He's already been to a reception at 10 Downing Street, where he and fellow veteran Bernard Morgan were feted before fielding questions from 30 schoolchildren while visiting HMS Belfast.

He's been interviewed by ITV, the BBC and a French television channel and visited by the Mayor of Burgess Hill - George lives in a retirement flat in the town - he's been invited by the Royal Navy to a veterans' reunion in Portsmouth and - on June 6 - to Marble Arch by the Blind Veterans UK. The Imperial War Museum are huge fans too.

"˜Why Am I The Guest Of Honour?'

"It's all a bit embarrassing," says George. "People keep telling me I'm the guest of honour. I'm not sure why."

The words bravery, selfless-ness and sacrifice spring to mind.

But George isn't having any of it. 

As his son Paul - who won the Haywards Heath Golf Club Championship in 1981 - puts it: "He's like all the World War II veterans I have met. They're not heroes, they tell you. The real heroes were those who did not come back."

When George volunteered, he had no intention of joining the "˜PBI' - the "˜Poor Bloody Infantry'. He had heard too many shocking stories from his own father, who had fought with the First Surrey Rifles (FSR) at the Battle of the Somme in World War I (of the three million-plus men who took part, more than a third were killed or wounded).

Instead he spent four years fighting with the Coastal Forces as a rear gunner on MTBs - Motor Torpedo Boats. Known as "˜Night Raiders', they spent much of their time heading out into The Channel and the North Sea at night, "looking for any trouble we could find". Sometimes that meant going as far as the main French and Dutch ports, to attack cargo ships or German patrol boats. Later, he served in the Adriatic.

And then there was D-Day itself. The Normandy Landings. The largest seaborne invasion in history, involving some 7,000 vessels, 195,000 naval personnel and 133,000 troops..

Motor Torpedo Boats were used to escort Allied soldiers in their landing craft as they crossed The Channel.

"We were protecting United States Army Rangers who were heading for Omaha and Utah Beaches," George recalls. 

Was he frightened? Well perhaps yes, as the vast flotilla and their accompanying squadrons of fighter aircraft and bombers closed in on France. 

But no, not when "all hell broke loose and our battleships started pounding the German defences. I've never forgotten that deafening noise. But you just went into work mode.

"Those American troops, though, would have been terrified. A lot of them were as young as me - just teenagers. And they weren't killed. No, they were slaughtered. It wasn't flat beaches, like you see in that film "˜Saving Private Ryan' - they had to climb over boulders and scale rock faces. We could see everything and it was horrible."

"˜My Guardian Angel'

Luck, though, was on George's side throughout the war, during which he was cited for bravery and mentioned in dispatches. "I had more than one close shave," he says. "On one occasion a tracer bullet came through my gun shield and missed my nose by an inch. And I was on a boat that sank in the "˜Oggin' (naval slang for the ocean) after coming across an acoustic mine.

"It blew the bows off and I was trapped as it went down, but I was able to swim downwards and then up in the right direction because I spotted a shaft of sunlight coming from the water's surface. My guardian angel was certainly looking out for me that day. 

"But that was the saddest thing that happened to me - I look back and thing about the 19 good shipmates of mine who now lie at the bottom of the Adriatic Sea."

George's upcoming trip to Portsmouth, courtesy of the Royal Navy, will be particularly poignant. He'll be reunited with some of those very Rangers who survived the Omaha and Utah carnage. "Every time they meet," says Paul, "these veterans greet each other like long lost brothers, as if they've been friends all their lives. They have this special bond."

After World War II the newly de-mobbed George worked for the General Post Office, then British Telecom. He married Joyce, they had Paul and he took up golf, joining HHGC in the early 1970s.

He got down to a 5 or 6 handicap. Look him up on the club directory and you'll discover he played his last recorded round in 2019, aged 95.

At times, Paul says, George can feel isolated in his apartment. But he still gets much-anticipated visits from old friends, as well as his son who lives nearby. 

And his war memories, though painful, have helped in one way.

A Feisty Character

"He was always a feisty, no-nonsense sort of character who never suffered fools gladly," Paul says. "But he's calmed down a lot in recent years - although he did abscond from his first care home on a scooter, aged 94, and it took us a few days to find him - he'd moved in with a friend!

"He's suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder over the years. Recently, he's become forgetful and is showing the first signs of dementia. And his sight is failing.

"Like so many of that generation, he never talked about the war. Then, one day, my daughter did a school project on it, she asked some questions and Dad suddenly opened up. 

"It's amazing what he can remember from that time - not just the big events but also the little things. Like the time he and his crewmates discovered boot polish contained alcohol. They worked out how to siphon it off, then drank it. When I asked him what it tasted like he told me: "˜Just like boot polish, to be honest'! 

All those war-time memories allow him to remain engaged today.

"Take our trip to Downing Street," adds Paul. "George really enjoyed the day and fully connected with the people he met - the school kids, and even Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and Education Secretary Gillian Keegan. He's not a Conservative voter, you see - not by any means! Before we set off for London I asked him to behave himself in front of the politicians and he replied: "˜I'll try.'

"I was exhausted when we got back home that evening. I thought he would be too.

"Then Dad looked up and asked: "˜So where are we going tomorrow?"

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