A RETIRED army major has published his memoirs, which he spent two years writing.
Douglas Goddard, 89, of Ridgeway, Wargrave, wrote the 600-page book mainly from memory and diaries he has kept.
He said: “I didn’t really need to research the book but just sit down and write. It is all here in my head and what’s not there I have a record of.”
Maj Goddard, who recently had triple-heart bypass surgery, even kept theatre programmes from performances he attended with wife Eve, who died four years ago.
The book, Master Of None, covers his life from his childhood in south-east London and Suffolk farms to the day in 1938, at the age of 18, that he began his long military career. Maj Goddard, who has lived in the same house for more than 40 years, said: “Joining up was the turning point in my life. Had it not been for the war, it would have been entirely different. We knew very well that war was coming and that it was a just war, fought against the tyranny of the Nazis.”
As a regular army officer with the 43rd Wessex Division during the Second World War, he joined the D-Day landings and went all the way through to Bremen.
After the war, Maj Goddard helped repatriate 30,000 displaced people from the concentration camps.
He was awarded a British Army of the Rhine commander-in-chief certificate by Allied ground forces commander Field Marshal Montgomery. He went on to serve during the Suez Canal crisis and became a gunnery instructor.
When he left the army after 21 years in 1959, he became deputy chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Building and was a Wokingham District councillor for 14 years, including two as chairman, representing Wargrave and Remenham.
“War has been the most significant element in my life yet I like to think I have remained a compassionate person despite my long career in the army,” said Maj Goddard, who has two grown-up children, Nigel and Tina, and four grandchildren.
“Sport has been very important too. Cricket is probably my first love, although I also very much like hockey.” He is vice-president of Reading Cricket and Hockey Club and a long-time member of the MCC.
Master Of None, priced £17, can be ordered from The Bell Bookshop in Bell Street, Henley or from Major Goddard at 38 Ridgeway, Wargrave, Berkshire RG10 8AS.
Published on 09 November 2009
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