Ken Candler, a much loved Essex Regiment veteran died peacefully on 9th August 2013 after a short illness. He had turned 100 in April. His funeral was at St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Fakenham, where he had run the family firm of funeral directors; Candler & Son.

Some 75 people attended Ken’s funeral, including a number of his regimental colleagues, albeit most from a somewhat younger generation. His coffin was draped with an Essex Regiment Standard and bore a wreath from the Regiment. The Essex Regimental March was played twice and “Knife, Fork Spoon” echoed round the Church.

Ken was a fine man and a real old trooper who graced the 4th/5th Bn Officers’ Annual Dinner for many years, travelling considerable distances from his home in Norfolk, latterly with his invaluable carer. Ken was a great Royal British Legion man who proudly led the Fakenham Remembrance Day parade for many years, not, as he joked, because his was the only bowler hat, but because he was in all respects a fine man with a stiff upper lip, old school, but also with a soft, caring side.

He was brought up in Great Clacton, the son of a builder and served in the Essex Yeomanry before being commissioned into the Essex Regiment in early 1943 and a posting to Ismalia in the Canal Zone. He joined 4th Essex in time for the final battle in Tunisia before the Battalion was sent to Italy , initially to the Sangro River area and then to Monte Cassino, where, after the battles, the Battalion was described by the GOC as one of the finest in the British Army. Ken was wounded at Castle Hill in 1944, later returning to the Battalion in July as IO. Unfortunately, the effect of his wounds limited his effectiveness and he took up an administrative position at base.

In 2003 Ken joined a pilgrimage from E Company (Essex and Hertfordshire) of the East of England Regiment TA which was making a tactical battlefield tour of Monte Cassino. By all accounts, Ken’s “true life” contribution was a major highlight. Three years later he joined an Essex Regiment pilgrimage to dedicate a memorial to those members of the Regiment who gave their lives during the liberation of Italy in 1944.

Ken wrote a memoir of his war service, “A Subaltern’s Story” published in the 4/5th Battalion’s Association Magazine, “Knife, Fork, and Spoon”. It tells a moving story of a young man newly commissioned and serving in some of the bloodiest actions of WW2. He told of enjoying an inspection by His Majesty King George VI, of 4 Indian Division, which 4th Essex had joined, and of American reporters commenting; “Gee – these guys look very pale for Indians!” The Italian weather was appalling, and bivouacking in a dry river bed, the battalion was almost washed away by flash floods. He noted a particularly horrifying experience of a patrol where they found rope ends hanging from makeshift gallows and bodies strewn on the ground.

On the other hand they had a splendid Christmas dinner, Ken having been successfully tasked with buying pigs at a local market. This was against Army orders as black market. He later confided that “fifty years on I may have got away with it!” Heavy artillery, bombing raids, foul weather and incredible gallantry marked the Monte Cassino campaign. It is fitting that the annual 4th/5th Battalion’s dinner commemorates that battle and Gaza from 1917. Ken was a welcome visitor at that dinner until the last couple of years.

Ken had a long and happy retirement enjoying sailing at Wells, rugby and theatre as well as keeping alertly aware of current affairs, right to the end. He tried a care home some four years ago but, after an operation, did not like it and accepted an offer from old friends, Mr and Mrs Swift to care for him at home. Mrs Swift said of him that he was generous, caring and grateful for a long and happy life. He never married. Ken is remembered on a bench in Fakenham, and in the hearts of those who knew him.

RAS