GUY DIAMONDHEARTBROKEN family and friends of a Dunkirk veteran have paid tribute to a well-respected and much-loved man .
Mourners gathered to pay their respects to Major Arthur Dymond, also known as Guy, at Saint Luke s Parish Church yesterday.Thursday, June 26.
The 88-year-old, who spent more than two decades serving in the Army, was well-known in the local community as an active member of the Southport Dunkirk Veterans.
He was the instigator of a project to mount tablets engraved with the names of the town s fallen soldiers from the Second World War in the Chapels at the Southport War Memorial on Lord Street.
His wife Marjorie, 87, who was a telephone operator serving the Royal Air Force, spoke of their diamond anniversary in 2005 as a very special memory .
She said: I miss him terribly. We spent 63 wonderful years together.
A proud moment for the couple was having lunch with the Queen in 2000 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the evacuation from Dunkirk and De Panne.
Major Dymond also leaves behind two sons, Roy, 61, and Russell, 59, and two daughters, Gillian, 51, and Christine, 49, and six grandchildren and five greatgrandchildren and a brother, Bill.
Christine described her father as strict but fair, adding: I loved him dearly. We were very close and we were always playing foolish tricks on each other.
Roy, Russell and Gillian agree that their dad was a well-respected and much loved man, and we were proud to have him as a father.
Bedford-born Major Dymond, who lived in Southport since the 1970s, was called up to fight as a 19 year old Territorial Army soldier in September, 1939.
During the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk on May 26, 1940, his boat was bombed by a German plane and he selflessly helped the injured onto another boat before getting on himself.
Back in England he was commissioned as an officer, the first in a series of promotions. After Dunkirk, he had another brush with death when his boat was torpedoed on the way to India. He also served in North Africa and India again before leading raiding forces in the Middle East until the war finished.
After that he was responsible for lifting mines on Rhodes with the aid of German prisoners of war. He continued serving in the Army until 1960 and ended up with the rank of substantive Major. He later worked as a manager at various engineering firms including Latimers, Hindswell Badger and Wimpy in Stockport.
As secretary of the Southport Dunkirk Veterans, Major Dymond was involved in organising numerous pilgrimages to Dunkirk.
Under his chairmanship, the ex-service associations began raising funds to update Southport s War Memorial, which honoured the heroes and heroines of the First World War but not the Second.
The £20,000 target was reached and a new tablet was unveiled on June 7, 1992.
Today it bears the names of 567 Southport World War Two soldiers, including six Polish airmen who lived in Ainsdale, and two who fell in subsequent engagements, namely Aden and Cyprus.
The President of the veterans group, Cllr Brian Rimmer, who accompanied Major Dymond on a pilgrimage last year, said: Guy was very independent and still as sharp as a needle. He was also someone who got things done. He was also a very caring man. He and Marjorie were a lovely couple.
It was very important to him to recognise those who so bravely gave their lives fighting for their country. It is sad that there are now fewer and fewer of our veterans. But they will always be remembered for their courage.
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