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Spike's full name was George Edgar Rannard, b. 5 December 1917, d. 2 January 2018. His funeral was a very moving but also uplifting occasion, largely owing to the very personal, eloquent testimonies of members of his family and a long-standing friend. It ended on a typically 'Spikeish' note with Marlene Dietrich singing 'Lily Marlene', which wartime song his granddaughter had found him singing (in German), sitting up in bed in hospital, just a couple of days before he died. Not bad, eh!
Thanks for this, Doug. So, his middle name was Edgar! I had put my money on 'Edward'. Thanks also, for your comments on Spike's granddaughter's memory of him singing 'Lily Marlene',in German, in his hospital bed, a few days before his death. What a man! David
No, Mike, he wasn't. He never even learned to drive a car, much less own one! His army service was spent in the Intelligence Corps mainly. His only contact with aircraft - he told me, once - was one evening, early on in the war, he was walking home after late-night carousing with friends (in Liverpool), when suddenly he heard the sound of an aeroplane coming closer and closer and his instinct made him throw himself down behind a wall. A couple of moments later there was an almighty explosion and the German bomber had pretty well destroyed the building on the other side of the wall where he had taken shelter!