George Fowler Graham

His exact Auxiliary Units service is not known. He was returned to 1st Battalion Worcestershire Home Guard according to Worcestershire Auxiliary Units Records.

In Mar 1942 he was called up to the Royal Engineers, but he was relegated to the Class W Reserve indefinitely. This meant his work was considered more important than military service and Auxiliary Units were considered this way at that time. At the time of his call up, he was described as an agricultural lorry driver and was posted to 1 Motor Transport Depot, Royal Engineers. 

On 14 April 1943 he returned to the Army. This date is commonly seen in Auxiliers records as being when their deferred call up was lifted, the invasion no longer being likely to come. He was sent to 26 Primary Training Centre at Northampton, as by this stage, all men received their initial training in the General Service Corps. In 26 May 1943, he returned to the Royal Engineers as a member of No.6 Docks Group at Cardiff, working as a stevedore, loading and unloading ships. In the days before shipping containers this was considered a skilled job and on 17 Jul 1943 he passed the Stevedore DIII Trade Test. On 22 Jul he was posted to 2 Docks Operating Section, only to be granted unpaid agricultural leave, to help bring in the harvest back home. Returning a month later within days he was transferred to No.9 Docks Group to become a member of 1045 Dock Operating Company. He was forfeited four days pay for being absent without leave for a half day on 10 Jan 1944.

His previous Auxiliary Units service resulted in his invite to join the Special Air Service and he was permanently attached to them on 1 Feb 1944, before a posting on 1 Jun. in Aug 1943 his record had been annotated “Not to be posted overseas”, but this it seems was ignored once a member of 1 SAS. Following training in Scotland he was deployed on 9 Sep 1944, possibly on Operation Kipling, returning 15 days later. He was with Squadron HQ of 1 SAS for Operation Archway from 19 Mar to 10 May 1945 as the lead the advance across Germany to the Baltic. He also was in Norway as part of Operation Apostle, disarming the German Garrison after the war, from 20 May 1945 to 30 Aug. The SAS disbanded in 2 Nov 1945 and he went to the Airborne Forces depot.

Come 1946, he was granted agricultural leave again from 15 May to 30 June returning for a couple a days to formalise his discharge from the Army on 2 Jul.