Nostalgia: An army life for Megan and Bill

Megan and Bill Sykes who are pictured here at the start of what would become a life of world-wide travel.

Megan - originally Megan Harris from Lillington - was always pleased when the paperboy from Cubbington made his deliveries.

Romance blossomed and she went on to marry Dennis Sykes - who everyone called Bill - at Warwick Registry Office in 1950.

Now an 80-year-old great-grandmother, Megan, who lives in Sydenham amazed experts at a digital photo scanning company last month when she presented them with a lifetime’s collection of old snaps.

Lizzie Davies, head of heritage at Kineton-based Save Photo Ltd said: “We went along to the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers’ Museum at St John’s House in Warwick to promote our photo restoration and archiving work and Mrs Sykes’ pictures were definitely one of the highlights.

“She and her late husband lived in Egypt, Hong Kong, Aden, Austria, Germany, Cyprus and Northern Ireland and so documented the domestic lives of soldiers and their families as they served overseas.”

Mrs Sykes has now offered to give the museum digital copies of her family pictures to add to the regimental archive.

The great-grandmother said: “Bill joined the Royal Warwicks at the age of 17 and served for 24 years. Sadly he died five years ago at the age of 79 but I can still remember that party in the sergeants’ mess in Warwick shortly after we were married.

“Bill was a clever man and promoted to sergeant very quickly, then sergeant major and colour sergeant. I’m just glad the war in Korea ended in 1953 as he was on the boat being sent out there. And we managed to stay out of trouble in Ireland.

“I absolutely loved travelling the world and our sons, Jim and Brian, always say they had an idyllic childhood.”

When Bill finally left the army in 1969, he was a warrant officer class 2 - but far from ready for retirement. He went on to work at Lockheed as a storeman.