Proud moment wearing dad's medals

Elsthorpe volunteer rural firefighter Simon Pearse at the Elsthorpe Anzac remembrance service on Sunday morning.

It was a proud moment for Elsthorpe volunteer rural firefighter Simon Pearse as he stood outside the village church to remember the fallen heroes who protected the free world from fascism and hatred — he was wearing his father's medals for the first time since he was a kid, playing soldier in the back garden of the family home in Berkshire, England.

"I was 26 when Dad died, and it took some time after that before I really registered what a hero he had been," Simon says.

"Wearing his medals at the Anzac Day service was something I've wanted to do for many years, ever since I knew I could," he says.

Captain Harry Adams Pearse MC.

Simon's father, Harry, won the Military Cross for bravery in 1945 when, under heavy enemy fire, he made his way towards a German gun emplacement to direct a barrage of artillery as his Inns of Court regiment attempted to recapture a French town following the D-Day invasion.

"When Dad died my older brother inherited his medals — I wasn't even sure the full-size version of his Military Cross was still in the family, but when my brother died in 2018 I had to find out," he says.

"On my last visit to the UK before lockdown I asked my sister-in-law and, seeing how much it meant to me, she quickly offered the medal to me. This is the first chance I've had to wear it officially.

Behind a bren gun, for a recruiting magazine.

"Dad never talked much about the war. I seem to remember something about his regiment being one of the first in to liberate the concentration camp, Belsen. I guess if you've been witness to that degree of evil you wouldn't want to talk about it either," he says.

Over the years Simon has found various accounts of his father's heroism, including from The Gazette, where his award of the Military Cross was announced, and is looking forward to getting back to the UK, not only to see his mum again, but to visit the Inns of Court regiment museum and get copies of the pages detailing his father's, and the regiment's, exploits.

"I've got his medals, a photo of him in uniform and even a booklet detailing some of the exploits of the Royal Armoured Corps which I found in my mother's things on my last visit. It has a picture of him in it, brandishing a Bren gun.

"I'd like to have them mounted into one frame to hang on the wall at home, and perhaps donate them to the regiment museum at some point in the future," he says.