Norman Perry
Norman Perry was only 18 years old when he became gun sergeant, with his own gun and gun crew. He was two years too young to go overseas and was posted to Borden as a drill instructor.
“That wasn’t my idea of a war. I had a word with my RSM who told me to put in for a transfer back. I did, and three months later I was in France with my old regiment.”
Norman fought in Lilles and Ypres before landing in Newport in Belgium. Separated from his gun crew, and the rest of his regiment during a minor skirmish, Norman and ten other men moved to Dunkirk, volunteering to carry stretcher cases from the ambulances to the hospital ship.
“The atmosphere on the beaches was warm and sunny – it was beautiful weather. There was no panic there, at all. The town was a mass of rubble though – it had been badly done over.”
In 1941 Norman was shipped out the Middle East, beginning a period of fighting all over the world. He remembers battles in Iraq, Suez, Egypt, Libya and the Western Deserts:
“The trouble with desert warfare – for both sides – is that there is nowhere to hide. It was very thrilling to look from the position that I was in then, fairly high ground, wide open spaces and stretching way out to my left in a big arc, running north, I could see all the guns.“
It was during one of these battles, in the Sahara, that Norman lost his sight, when the Germans attacked with trench mortars:
“I was directing a gun teller, when I got one piece of metal in each eye at the same time. That spun me round, and something big hit me in the back. When I dropped, I got some more bits and pieces in the right thigh. I heard a sergeant saying: ‘He’s had it’, and in the best army language I could muster, I told him I hadn’t.”
Norman was moved to hospital in Alexandra, on December 6th, 1941, aged only 21. After five weeks, he came to Orribay, where he met the secretary chairwoman of the local St Dunstan’s group, on the lookout for potential St Dunstaners. He was given the choice of coming back to the UK, or going across to Capetown, and opted for the latter.
The ex-secretary of St Dunstan’s founder (Sir Arthur Person) ran the training centre in Capetown at which Norman stayed. He became involved in activities like joinery, telephony, braiding, tennis, typing and Braille. He also visited Johannesburg to go dancing, as part of his treatment.
At St Dunstan’s suggestion Norman begain training as a physiotherapist in Capetown. He returned to England in 1943 to finish his training at St Dunstan’s wartime centre, Church Stretton. From there, he moved to the RNIB phyisotherapy school in London.
Norman married his childhood sweetheart and became a physiotherapist. He ran the physiotherapy department at Grimsby Hospital for 30 years, building up the department from two to eight qualified physiotherapists.
“With their physiotherapists, St Dunstan’s didn’t just say – you’re trained, right that’s it, you’re on your way. They would organise two courses a year for you to attend, to keep you up to date with all the new equipment and techniques that were going on.”
Norman was also involved with the sports teams at St Dunstan’s, going to West Berlin in 1974 and 1978 to participate in international skiing, and implementing archery events at St Dunstan’s. Norman still shoots with St Dunstan’s archery club, sweeping the board at major championships.
A growing number of ex-Service men and women are desperate for support: more World War Two veterans are losing their sight and more young British soldiers are at risk of returning home blind.
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