WWII veteran Tommy Parkinson was born on 6 March 1923 and celebrated his 100th birthday this year.
Tommy volunteered for Air Crew when he was 17. Having passed his health and aptitude tests but failing his maths, he joined the Rifle Brigade aged 19 and became a dispatch rider on the front line. He spent six months in Africa in 1943 before moving onto Italy.
Tommy was in Italy from 1943 fighting from the top to the bottom of the country and was at both Anzio and Monte Cassino. Following his time in Italy, Tommy was always known as ‘Anzio Tom’. On VE day, he spent the day riding around on his dispatch bike telling everyone that that ‘La guerra è finite’.
One of Tommy’s great loves was singing and at Taxi Charity patron Vera Lynn’s 90th birthday party at the Imperial War Museum, he sang ‘We’ll Meet Again’ to her.
In 2017, Tommy wrote his life story which can be read here: www.italystarassociation.org.uk/history/tom-parkinson
Describing his arrival in Italy, Tommy said: "Our first sight of Italy and it looks like England with the rain and the civilians dressed rather like we dress back home – after six months in North Africa it’s such a different scene."
And of his journey to Anzio, he said: "We are on the move again – this time to a place called Anzio, a beachhead south of Rome where there is heavy fighting going on and he (Major) warns us we will be sitting on a 'powder keg' with the hundreds of tons of ammunitions the unit will be dealing with. Sitting on a volcano, he says. Then to our surprise, he says if any man thinks he can’t deal with this move he will try to get replacements so step forward now. Nobody moved. “Right” says Major Taylor, “we pack up tomorrow and we will be on our way.”"
Dick Goodwin, Honorary Secretary, Taxi Charity for Military Veterans, said: “Tommy was an important part of our veterans family. Over the years, we got to know him really well and he was loved by us all. As a dispatch rider in the Italian Campaign, his stories were legendary and always told with a smile on his face. Every month we post a greeting card to our veterans and it was lovely to hear from Tommy’s son-in-law Tony, that Tommy had saved all the cards we had ever sent him.”
Watch Tommy being interviewed by CBC News about his experience of the end of the war and his rendition of ‘We’ll Meet Again’: www.taxicharity.org/post/wwii-veteran-tommy-parkinson-interviewed-by-canadian-news-channel-cbc-news