Buckingham Palace reception for Korean War veteran Roland Drake from Marchwood
A NEW Forest veteran of the “forgotten” Korean War has received royal recognition for his service at a Buckingham Palace reception.
Roland Drake (93) from Marchwood, was a quarters armourer, responsible for maintaining and firing guns on the deck of the anti-aircraft frigate HMS Whitesand Bay during the 1950-53 conflict.
Roland and his wife Pam recently attended a veterans’ reception at the palace to mark 70 years since armistice, where they met Princess Anne and Duchess of Edinburgh, Sophie Wessex.
The brutal conflict is often referred to as the “forgotten” war because of the relatively scant attention it received in the years that followed in comparison to other conflicts of the era.
Bramshaw-born Roland said the worst thing about his two-year deployment to the Far East in his early twenties was being above deck off the Korean coast in bitterly cold weather.
While deployed, Roland’s ship spent four months patrolling ports in Malaya, and was occasionally redeployed to Hong Kong as a duty ship to “take a break” from the conflict.
Roland recalls on 15th August 1950, the day he shipped out for the conflict, he had gone to a cafe on the Forest for a cup of tea with his then girlfriend Pam.
While there the couple heard an announcement on the radio that Anne, the Princess Royal, had been born.
Roland shared the story with the royal at the Buckingham Palace veterans’ reception last month.
“It was all really informal and friendly,” he said. “I told the princess I had come from the New Forest and she said ‘Oh, Beaulieu’, so she knows the area.
“I told her I remembered her birth being announced on the radio and she joked: ‘I wouldn’t know anything about that…I’m sorry you had to wait 70 years to meet me’.”
Roland recalls multiple engagements firing on supply trains carrying munitions on rail lines from China along the Korean peninsula coastline during his service.
“We specialised in close shore engagements,” he explained. “The west coast of Korea has a lot of mud flats, places where enemy troops could get across to try and outflank our forces.
“We were there to provide gunfire and protect the troops. We would sometimes go up rivers and be about 30 miles from the sea.
“Along the east coast of Korea there was a great long railway that came from China along the coast, so it reminded me a bit of Devon in a way.
“We used to catch trains coming down the line with ammunition and supplies for them and we would bombard them.”
The Buckingham Palace reception was not the first time Roland has rubbed shoulders with world leaders. After the end of the Korean War, Roland continued to serve in the Navy for a time, furthering his training as a gun operator and serving on anti-piracy patrols around Borneo.
In 1954, Roland and the rest of his ship’s complement was inspected by Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie while on deployment in the Mediterranean. Roland and the rest of the crew were also inspected by King Idris of Libya and former Yugoslav revolutionary leader Josip Tito.
Roland and Pam tied the knot in 1953, although it was not without a hiccup.
He said: “I was in Portsmouth for the naval review for the Queen’s coronation anniversary and I was delegated to guard a VIP car for Prince Philip. I couldn’t get away from my posting until noon and I had a short weekend pass to come back to St John’s Church to get married the same day. I had to get back here in a fair rush but I made it.”
After leaving the Navy on his 25th birthday in 1956, Roland worked in engineering roles at Marchwood, and later, Fawley power station until retiring.
During his early retirement, Roland would drive community mini buses and deliver meals on wheels.
Roland and Pam, who celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary last year, now live with their son Tim and daughter-in-law Joy in an annexe of their Marchwood home.
