For Remembrance, A Tribute to Harry, The Fighting Man

I share a personal tribute to my father, Harry, a talented graphic artist and war veteran whose life was permanently altered by his service in WWII.

His story highlights the long-term, intergenerational impact of conflict on veterans, their families, and communities. It’s my call to remember and reflect on those affected by war, both past and present.

Transcript

Hello everyone, it’s Jan Lovett here from Jan Lovett Music.

During this season of remembrance, I thought I’d take a few minutes to talk to you about a young lad named Harry.

Harry lived near the docks in South East London. And he was taken on as an apprentice in a company of graphic artists. He was a very talented artist, was Harry, and had been in post just a few months before the Second World War was declared.

He was given some basic training, and I mean very basic, and sent out to Burma. And he fought there in India and in what is now known as Pakistan. He’d never been abroad before, so that was a bit of a shock to the system.

Harry saw, did, and witnessed things that no human being should have to. As did everybody else who served.  When he came back, his apprenticeship was no longer available. He had no work. Nobody wanted a war veteran, and the country seemingly turned their backs because they wanted to move on, quite rightly, from all those years of hardship and conflict.

Harry lost his faith, his Christian faith, which had been so… so special to him, growing up. It just seemed to desert him. He became… Well, he was still a soldier, that’s just it.  He… As I say in the song, they pressed his warrior button and didn’t switch it off. He fought everybody and everything, whether it was people in authority or people closer to home. It made him very difficult to live with. He became overly protective of people that he loved. It made life very difficult for his wife and for his family.

And you’re probably guessing by now that, yes, Harry was my dad.

He was a lovely man. He would do anything for you. But he was a fighter to the end of his life. He really was. 

And so it makes me think about conflict around the world that there still is. And we’ve seen it, haven’t we? And it’s like ripples in a pond. You throw a stone into a pond and the ripples expand. And they go outwards. And they affect everybody.

So war doesn’t just affect those servicemen and women. It affects their families, it affects communities, it affects children who grow up completely differently to how they had perhaps expected.

So, I’d like you to think of people in your own life, in your own families, in your own communities. Think of war veterans, think of everybody that has been, and still is, affected by conflict around the world. And listen to the words of my song, my tribute. To Harry. The fighting man.