Three Taxi Charity volunteers took WWII Royal Navy veteran Ernie Davis from Hornchurch out for lunch to celebrate his 97th birthday on 18 March.
Volunteers, London cab driver Brian Heffernan, Taxi Charity vice president Dick Goodwin, and charity graphic designer Susy Goodwin took Ernie and fellow WWII veteran John King out for a birthday lunch, complete with a celebratory cake, to The Chequers Inn in Wareside.
Dick Goodwin said: “During WWII, Ernie served on the minesweeper HMS Cotton, and saw action in both the Atlantic and Russian Convoys. On D-Day, he was in the Channel patrolling for German U-Boats.
“Ernie is an important member of the Taxi Charity family and has been on many of our trips across the UK and the continent. In 2018, we flew him to Russia for the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival in Red Square, and in October 2021, we drove him to Portsmouth as a guest of the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre for their benevolent dinner on board HMS Victory.
“We are well known for the free trips that we organise for veterans but our support for them also includes events like today when we try to spoil them with small gestures that they are not expecting.”
If you know a veteran who might benefit from becoming part of the Taxi Charity family, please get in touch.
Taxi Charity Volunteer, Susy Goodwin, asks Ernie Davis about being on the Russian Convoys in WWII.