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When I was asked to find out about their roles in WW2, I didn't expect them to have an exciting story.

Through the years, I've been told bits about their WW2 experiences and the facts have been muddled up in my head, so I spoke to their daughter and my Mum, Lynn, to clarify what actually happened.

Their story is one that would make a fantastic subplot in an epic war film.

It is a love story, one that involves spells in The Glasshouse prison, time spent in POW camps, letters across the sea, and an opening scene involving a wedding funded by rationing books.

Lynn says, 鈥淢y mum stayed at home in Middlesbrough and worked for Price鈥檚 Tailors whilst my dad (who was known as Gilly) went away to war.

鈥淭hey missed each other a lot as they鈥檇 courted for six years and now he was sent away.

鈥淗e came back to get married and had to use war rations to pay for their wedding outfits and had to have a second-hand wedding ring.

鈥淭he party went on for a week at Elsie's parents house on Crescent Road in Middlesbrough and then he went away again, but not for long.

鈥淓lsie would see him off at the station and would go home and Gilly would be back within an hour, and of course, he was AWOL, so got into trouble.

鈥淗e got arrested three times for going AWOL, and the Red Caps would turn up and take him off to The Glasshouse, which was an awful place to be, they really put him through it in there, but he didn鈥檛 care -it was worth it to go see her.

鈥淲hen he was away Gilly was stationed in Cologne, Germany and worked as a rifleman and moved onto working as a guard responsible for looking after German POW鈥檚.

鈥淲hen Gilly came home from the war, he had changed a little, which isn鈥檛 surprising considering some of the things he saw and he had bad nerves for the rest of his life.

"They were married for about 45 years by the time my Dad died and Mum never stopped missing him, just like in the war.鈥�

Speaking to my Mum made me realise that these people who I鈥檇 only ever seen as laid back grandparents, had once been young like me, with the same daft dreams and hopes and a belief in love that most of my cynical generation have forgotten about, and I鈥檓 glad that I took the time to discover the stories behind the photographs.

The People's War website is听 looking for at least 5,000 stories from the North East, so if you have a story and want to get involved, go to their website (in the top right hand of the page) to see how to get involved or to volunteer as a story gatherer, contact Julie Donaldson on 01642 340 612.