Joe Marchant

Joe Marchant

My hero is Joseph William Marchant, my grandpa. He was born on the 16th of December, 1929, at Sidcup in Kent, England.

My hero has lived many places throughout his life because he was stationed at different places due to the RAF. But now he lives in Perth, Australia, enjoying a nice, quite, retirement life. My grandpa is important to me because he has been a big part of my life. He has given me advice for a lot of important things I have done. For example, he taught me how to make things with my hands. He is an expert woodcrafter and metal crafter, and can fix almost anything. He has influenced my life religiously. I am Catholic and when I doubted the Bible, he gave me reasons not to doubt it and got me back on track.

He is important to me not just for affecting my life, but because of his impressive history. My grandpa has been through a lot. I remember him telling me that he watched the Great Battle of Britain from his farm in 1940. When he grew up, he found out that is parents were very poor, and so he started working at the age of 14. At the age of 15, my grandpa started secondary school, but this wasn’t normal secondary school. The courses at this school all had to do with woodwork, metalwork, electrics and gardening. This made him extremely useful to his parents around the house. Also, he was still useful mending some of my broken toys when I was younger. At the age of 15, my grandpa started an apprenticeship for a year as an engineer at a garage.

At the age of 16, Joseph wanted to do something else, so he made his ID card to read 18 instead of 16, and he went down to the local Army recruiting place. The officer there asked him for his birth certificate and it showed he was 16. The officer asked my grandpa to leave. But that didn’t dampen his spirits. He went down to the local RAF station and this time, the officer didn’t ask for his birth certificate, so he got in the RAF. This is why I admire my grandpa so much—he never gives up, even if someone shoots him down. For nine years, he was at Warrington Air Base, then after that, he served in Northern Ireland. After his time there, he was faced with a difficult decision. He was being transferred to the Middle East. It was a big decision, but he said yes.

He is also important to me because he has looked out for me throughout the years. He has given me great advice and always steered me in the right direction.