In the run up to VE-Day 75, soldiers from 4th Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, visited one of our own heroes of the Second World War, Corporal Ray Lord of the 2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment. This was an opportunity to pass on our thanks and admiration to one of our WW2 veterans. Corporal Ray Lord is 96 years young and resides at Westerlands Care Village, near Hull.
For many years Ray has been a regular guest of The Yorkshire Regiment and recently joined serving soldiers, dignitaries and fellow veterans in Normandy for the D-Day 75 commemorations.
Private Michael Gater is 22 and a student at Hull University and a member of 4 YORKS, Alma Company, Hull and took the opportunity to ask Ray a few questions; “It was a fantastic opportunity to meet a likeminded, similar soldier but from a different era, yet we so easily found common ground that brings us together. Sharing stories of WW2 and the current COVID challenge, which we are currently facing was priceless”.
Ray Lord was born in July 1924. His father was a Sergeant in 2nd Bn The East Yorkshire Regiment. Ray joined the regiment’s 4th Territorial Army Battalion aged 15 as a signaller but was discharged as being too young for war service in 1939. He worked as a joiner repairing blitz damage in Hull.
In 1943, Ray re-enlisted into the East Yorks and famously landed with the Battalion on D-Day, 6 June 1944. He was injured by a mortar bomb outside Caen, where his radio took most of the blast and probably saved his life. He spent several weeks in hospital in Leeds before returning to the battalion for the remainder of the campaign in North West Europe and was in Bremen on VE Day, 8 May 1945. The battalion went to Palestine and then Egypt where Ray served until his discharge in 1947. After the war he married and owned and ran a newsagent in East Hull.
- The Yorkshire Regiment has the distinction of being the only County Regiment left in the British Army and is made up of two Regular battalions and one Army Reserve Battalion.
- The 4th Battalion (4 YORKS) Army Reserve are located across Yorkshire and Teesside. Several 4 YORKS Reserves have been mobilised and are deployed alongside their regular 2 YORKS counterparts in Afghanistan and many others have been mobilised as part of the COVID Support Force, responsible for fixed and mobile testing centres. Recently 4 YORKS assisted with the response to flooding in West Yorkshire, ably demonstrating the utility and capability of the Army Reserve.
