Vintage Roger

In 1930, 21-year-old Roger Mortimer was commissioned into the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards, and would spend the next 8 years stationed at Chelsea Barracks. He lived a fairly leisurely existence, with his parents' house in Cadogan Gardens a stone's throw away, and pleasant afternoons were whiled away at the racecourse or a members' club. Things got a little hairy in Palestine in 1938, when Roger, now a captain, found himself amidst the action in the Arab Uprising. While fighting the Germans in 1940, Roger was knocked unconscious by a shell explosion. Upon waking he found that he was now a PoW. Thus began a period of incarceration that would last 5 long years, and which for Roger there seemed no conceivable end in sight. This account tells of Roger's years in the Coldstream Guards and is followed by a collection of letters he wrote to his good friend Peggy Dunne from May 1940 to late 1944.