Jim Gilmore

 

 

This photo of Carol’s dad in RAF uniform, was taken in 1944; he was aged 22 years. James, most notably called Jim, was born in rural Coleraine, County Derry, Northern Ireland in 1921. The oldest son of two boys and with three sisters, he left school aged 14 and became a farm labourer – driving a farm cart. In 1942 he enlisted in the RAF and after training as an airman, he was involved in the Normandy invasion where he drove a large lorry to supply air troops and air fields across Europe. He was involved in many traumatic events, being demobbed in 1946. He eventually settled with his wife in Staffordshire and died there and at home at the age of 70 in 1991 from inoperable cancer.