Hello – I’m afraid this may be a bit of a long shot.

My late grandfather, Noel Parry, was awarded the Italy star medal but my siblings and I know very little about his service history (he has a couple of other medals) and I’m keen to learn anything I can about him.

One story I do know about his time in Italy was that his plane was shot down (unknown date and location) and an Italian family took him in and kept him safe. I don’t know many details, one telling was that he was with them for a few weeks/months and another was that he lived with them for a few years.

This wasn’t a story he ever told us grandchildren (I only learned about it from my mum – his daughter in law), he never really spoke about the war or his time in the RAF. I used to work for Combat Stress, the Veteran’s mental health charity, so am aware that he may have had something like undiagnosed PTSD and didn’t want to discuss his time in the service.

I would be very interested to know if anyone can help me find more information about him. He passed away in December 2018 and I miss him terribly, so any information or advice on research would be greatly appreciated. I’ve googled his Officer number and name/rank but not had any luck with any of the websites the results came up with.

Thanks,

Fia