Korea - Mr Jack Bellinger

·1 hr 58 min·5 clips

Colonel Carr told the regiment it had been nominated to go to Korea in late 1951.

Jack Bellinger is interviewed at his house in Kennington near Oxford. He gives his date of birth, 7 June 1929, and sketches his Army service. He says he joined because Civvy Street was not for him. The path in starts with a recruiting office in St Ebbs, Oxford, in February 1947, then a wait until May before he actually joined. He reports to Slade Barracks at Cowley, described here as a temporary barracks of the Oxford and Bucks Castle Barracks. From there the story moves through early service and into Germany. He explains that soldiers were allowed three weeks’ leave every six months from Germany. Because he joined the regiment in December, that often meant being home for Christmas. That matters when the story reaches Christmas 1950, with him on leave and already engaged to Peggy. They had planned to marry on 23 June 1951. After he returns from leave in early 1951, Colonel Carr calls the regiment together. The regiment is told it has been nominated to go to Korea at the end of the year to relieve the 8th Royal Irish Hussars. Jack writes to Peggy and asks whether she still wants the wedding to go ahead. She is unsure at first, so he comes home on leave and they talk it through. He puts it in plain financial terms. If he went out unmarried and was killed, she would get nothing. If they married, she would receive family allowance, marriage allowance, and, if the worst happened, widow’s allowance. Peggy decides it is a good deal, and they go ahead with the wedding. The interview then moves toward the training after the marriage and the run-up to deployment. It ends with Jack reflecting on the duty, the reunion, and the interviewer’s note that some dates may be a little inaccurate because the memories are old.

As heard by us

A soldier's route to Korea is traced through marriage plans, postings, and remembered routine.

The episode follows Jack Bellinger from enlistment in 1947, through a posting in Germany, and into the build-up to Korea, with marriage plans folded around the deployment.

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Why you'd press play

You want a Korean War story where the date of the wedding matters almost as much as the posting.

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