Our grateful thanks to Amanda Gillies and Nikki Blackborow for providing this story and photos and allowing us to post them here on our website.
Our grandfather, a Captain in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, was killed in action in Normandy on 1st August 1944 aged 27. He left behind his young wife, our grandmother Barbara Collins, who was a Wren and his one-year old baby daughter, our mum Penny.
He had volunteered as soon as war was declared; at that time he was the youngest qualified agricultural auctioneer in the country and was looking forward to a brilliant career and future in the family business, Jose Collins Auctioneers.
Douglas was a born and bred Cornishman who lived in the village of Gweek, Helston from the age of 10 and is considered by locals to be ‘a true son of Gweek’.
Our mother often talked about how her father’s memory was kept alive through friends and family talking in the “warmest tones” about how special and loved he was. One family friend described our grandfather as his “hero” as a boy, because of the fast speeds at which he rode his motorbike around the Cornish lanes.
We also heard that when Douglas found out that the same friend had recently joined the army as a private, he took him out to dinner, despite it being almost unheard of for the two ranks to dine together.
By the village green, you can see a plaque on the wall dedicated to Douglas’ memory and in nearby Constantine, you can see his name inscribed on the war memorial.
