SAFFRON Grove Retirement Village residents Reginald Tokely and Maxwell Alwyn Llewelyn are the latest recipients of the Quilts of Valour.
Quilts of Valour is an organisation formed to present quilts to service members of the ADF in recognition of their sacrifice for Australia while deployed on combat operations.
Reginald “Reg” Tokely was conscripted into the British 7th Battalion, Royal Corps of Signals in early 1940, just before his 21st birthday.
He was part of the second troupes organised for training to go overseas.
Their first main camp was just outside Dunkerque, France, but they moved around until they were requested to make their way through to Belgium. At Ostend, Reg and his two mates were required to re-establish a telegraph office for the oncoming troupes to use.
They had to work underground in this station as the area had already been bombed. The rest of the troupe was on the other side of the river at a camp that was shelled and destroyed by the Germans.
This was the second time Reg’s life had been saved. The first was while he was training and he went AWOL home to get married.
When he returned to barracks the next day the place was empty. His entire troupe had been deployed and were taken POW in Crete – he never heard of any survivors.
It was Christmas while they were on the outskirts of Antwerp. The village “enemy” had their own soldiers but on Christmas Eve these soldiers made their way over to Reg’s camp and shared beer and had a day of forgetting the war.
Maxwell Alwyn “Max” Llewelyn joined the army on 14 April 1942 at 19 years of age. After only weeks of training, he was transferred to Canungra Qld from there his battalion was transported by a small ship in a convoy of over 50 ships being escorted by submarines to New Guinea.
Max served in the 3rd Division 4th Brigade – Headquarters.
During his four years’ service he was posted to Jaquinot Bay, Milne Bay, Lae, Finch Haven, Madang and other areas along the North Coast.
Both men have been supported throughout his life by his family and friends and since moving to Saffron Grove Retirement Village he is enjoying the companionship of many more friends.
