Sad day for Shropshire's Korea war veterans as group disbands

For Ted Jones, who still suffers badly from an injury he suffered during the conflict more than 60 years ago it is a sad day.

The 81-year-old has been secretary of the Korean Veterans' Association for 16 years and has enjoyed support from the group, which used to have more than 50 members but has now fallen to 26.

"It's sad, but the thing is that we're all getting old," said Mr Jones. "These things have to come to an end, don't they?"

More than 80,000 servicemen were deployed to Korea between 1950 and 1953 and 1,106 never returned.

Yet it was only last year that those who paid the ultimate sacrifice were finally honoured with a memorial in London.

Until last year, London was the only capital city of the coalition of countries that fought under the UN flag not to have an accessible memorial.

The £1 million memorial, of a soldier with his head bowed, was made possible because of a donation by the South Korean government.

The branch was formed in September 1981, one of nearly 60 branches which formed with the advent that year of the British Korean Veterans' Association to foster comradeship between those who were involved in that conflict. The war lasted from 1950 to 1953 when a ceasefire was signed.

There was no peace treaty and technically North Korea and South Korea remain at war to this day.

Mr Jones says the association nationally was disbanded on December 27 last year.

He added: "We as a branch decided in February that we would close. All that has to be done now is the laying up of the standard. We wanted it to be laid up at Shropshire Regimental Museum in Shrewsbury, but we have been told there is no room for it there.

"We approached Dawley Royal British Legion who said they would be willing to do it, and so the standard is going to be laid up there. I don't know the date yet and won't be able to go myself – I can't even hold a pen now because of my injuries."

The UK became the second largest contributor out of 21 countries that joined the UN forces in the conflict zone when, in 1950, the Communist-backed forces of the North invaded the South.

Yet at the time, nobody living in the rubble of post-war Britain seemed to have any appetite for another conflict. The lack of recognition is something veterans have struggled against ever since.

It was only last year a memorial was unveiled in London, and that was only after it was paid for by the South Korean government.

The wounds that almost took Ted Jones' life over 60 years ago have now caught up with him again, big time.

"I'm all right from the chin up, but no good from the chin down," said Mr Jones.

He still has the shrapnel in his body from the mortar bomb that cut him down during the Korean War on June 23, 1953.

The pain Mr Jones suffers is a continuing reminder to him of the cost the war has had on his life.

He was a teenage soldier serving with the Durham Light Infantry and was on night patrol on Hill 355, near the 38th Parallel.

"We got ambushed. I got hit by shrapnel which punctured my neck and lung. I spent six months in hospital, three months in Japan and three months in England," said Mr Jones, from Wellington.

"I wasn't unconscious. When it happened I thought 'I've got to get out of here.' I thought I was taking big footsteps, but I was not.

"I was on my back and my legs were going like this in the air. I thought I was breathing from the side of my neck. There was blood everywhere. It was an open wound."

Airlifted from the front line, he was later discharged from the army and received a small war pension, which was later stopped, although in a way in which it could be reinstated – which is exactly what happened when his ailments started to pile up in the 1990s, with the pension rising accordingly.

Then the big blows started coming in. One morning in 2007 he found he had no feeling in his fingers and toes. He had had what was thought at first to be a stroke, but turned out to be pressure on his spinal cord.

Mr Jones could, at least, still get about and drive.

On December 6 last year he got out of bed and could not stop his legs shaking. On seeing a consultant, the news was not good.

"He said that I had five pressure points on my spinal cord, mostly caused by shrapnel which is still in me."

He was told that his body would not take an operation.

"So sadly that's it. They can't do anything more."

Yet this is not a tale of a veteran of a forgotten war being abandoned and neglected by an ungrateful society. Mr Jones has had a lot of help, and praises in particular the charity SSAFA, the Soldiers, Sailors & Airmen Families Association.

"They have raised the money for things like the conversion of the bathroom, for the bed, and the stair lift.

"When it broke down and had to have a new gearbox they raised the money for that. They're a wonderful organisation – absolutely brilliant. My case worker is voluntary," said Ted, who turned 81 on March 3.

There has been other help too, for example from a Telford & Wrekin Council occupational therapist. Carers come in night and morning.

"I can't even shave myself, feed myself, or clean my teeth.

"I never thought in all those years that I would end up like this."

He has a frame which he can use to shuffle about, as he puts it, but the only times he gets out of the house now are for hospital appointments, by ambulance.

"I can talk to you and smile and have a little laugh, but I get depressed. I am not a person to get too distressed, but I do get frustrated to look out there (front garden) and think of the work I have done there, and at the back – and I can't even get to it.

"The surgeon told me I must never drive again. I thought I would have a scooter, but I don't think I'd be able to get on it.

"Things could get worse. But I'm getting good help."

His final job as part of his 16-year stretch as secretary of the Shropshire Korean Veterans Association is to ensure that it is not forgotten.

That means finding a home for the group's standard, which is set to be displayed at Dawley Royal British Legion.

Mr Jones is too unwell to attend the ceremony when the standard is unveiled, but is happy it will find a good home.

"It will be fixed on the wall with proper brackets at the RBL club in Station Road," he said. "It is the right thing to do."