Cumberland News News Obituaries Peter Terry Published at 14:10, Friday, 02 September 2011 Yes, he was an old soldier was Peter Robert Terry. But not just any old soldier from World War Two. For his Royal Artillery battery was the one that opened fire to begin the battle of El Alamein and the relentless campaign that eventually, pushed German forces out of Africa. He had a long war, did the Wigton man who has died, aged 98. And he had an even longer career in the Merchant Navy and a far longer one still as a member of the Labour Party. Eighty years, in fact. He joined the party in 1931 with his mother insisting that he paid his penny a week membership contribution before he went out with his brothers on Friday nights. And only three months ago his loyalty to the party was recognised with a letter of congratulation from party leader Ed Milliband and the award of a lifetime honorary membership. If he had a passion for old-style “real” socialism he also had another long-time passion in life – for growing and showing the flowers called sweet peas. After he retired and had the time, he grew quality plants that won medals and certificates in shows organised by the National Sweet Pea Society, of which he later became a vice-president. He was born in Bethnal Green, London, one of seven children, three of whom died early in life. His education took place at an open air school, called Stormont House, where he did rather well, winning many prizes. He became a gardener, which was when he developed his passion for sweet peas and then he became a apprentice butcher. The pay was better, although the hours were long and holidays few. He was a life-long supporter of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, enjoyed cycling, especially weekend rides. It was on one such trip that he saw what became known as ‘the battle of Cable Street’ where Sir Oswald Mosley’s Fascist ‘blackshirts’ clashed with dockers and other workers. Seeing this at first hand created in him what became a lifelong loathing of all forms of discrimination, a conviction reinforced when he saw the first blitzkrieg of London’s docklands in 1940. And so he joined the Army to fight for his beliefs and was stationed in Shropshire with the Royal Artillery, where he became a crack shot with both the rifle and heavier weapons. In 1941 he sailed to join the new 8th Army which was then being formed to fight in the North African campaign and his voyage out took him from the River Clyde, around the Horn of Africa, into the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. The troopship on which he sailed had been the civilian liner Queen Elizabeth and he and his friend had to man the rear anti-aircraft gun, which meant that they enjoyed first-class accommodation while maintaining the gun and firing a few rounds in target practice every now and again. In Africa he fought in the battles of Alam El Halfa and then El Alamein, alongside Australians and New Zealanders, and he and his fellow gunners wrecked a fair number of German tanks. He was with the 8th Army as it advanced through Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and then across the Mediterranean into Sicily and on to mainland Italy. He saw the surrender of the Italian navy at Taranto and during the next 20 months he fought at Rapido and in the ferocious battle of Monte Casino, before moving on to Rome and the crossing of the River Po. He had become a sergeant when his war ended, with the liberation of Trieste and the taking of southern Austria. He then returned home to marry his long-time girlfriend, Lily, and be demobbed. The couple made their home in Essex and, after their daughter, Janet, was born in 1948, he decided that the best way to secure a future for his family was to join the Merchant Navy and this he did, sailing around the world as a ship’s chief butcher for the next 20 years. He retired when he was 65 and then began to do what he had always wanted to do – grow prize-winning sweet peas – and he was very good at it. After his wife died in 2004, four months before their diamond wedding anniversary, he moved up to Cumbria, to live with his daughter and he died in a Wigton care home. His funeral service took place in St Mary’s Church, Wigton, and he was buried in the woodland site at Carlisle, alongside his wife and sister. Mr Terry leaves his daughter, grandson and great-granddaughter. Members of the Royal British Legion and of the Labour Party formed a guard of honour at his funeral and the Mayors of Allerdale, Wigton and Workington were among the mourners.