At the weekend, I learned something about my father, Anthony Johansen, who died on 28th February 2011. Given that for most of my life, he was either at sea or living in Canada, it’s not surprising that I keep finding out things I didn’t know, but this one stopped me in my tracks.
In 1940, Anthony had a close brush with death when the school he was at was bombed while the students were in class. And later in World War Two, he signed up at age 15 with the Merchant Navy, serving on the Liberty Ships, plying the U-boat infested waters of the North Atlantic, in order to bring supplies to the British people. In my world, and I hope yours, he was one of many heroes who enabled our country to defeat the fascist enemy.
In 2020, as the Covid-19 virus took hold of our country, the Queen made a rare and surprisingly moving national address, closing with the words, ‘We’ll meet again.’ It turns out that the young Anthony wrote a letter to Vera Lynn, who made the song famous, and she replied, sending him a signed photograph. Sadly, it is not known what happened to that photograph, but what a wonderful thing to find out. The song whose words gave everyone hope in the war, and now gives hope to a different generation, resonates with my father’s experiences of the war. I’m incredibly moved by it.
The more I learn of my father, the more I want to learn. And the more I think about him, the more I regret the fact that I didn’t see him as much I could have and maintained closer contact, even though he lived on the other side of the Atlantic.
Sadly, my father and me won’t meet again. It’s too late for that. But I’ll never hear We’ll Meet Again in the same way. It will another thing to remind me of Anthony Johansen.
