Private George Ferrario

George was born on 26th April 1926 to Jane and Mario Ferrario in St. Pancreas, London, Mario being of Italian origin.
He was the youngest of four children, the eldest being his brother Bob and two sisters, Rosa and Maggie.

Little is known of his childhood but on his 17th birthday he and a friend decided to enlist in the Army to fight for their country, this being 1943. H decided not to tell his family until after the deed was done, his mother inevitably being upset as her brother had been killed during the Great War.

After a few months in the army he applied to join the Parachute Regiment, the food being better with higher wages. He passed the training and his first official parachute jump was into Cyprus.
He spent the remainder of the war in various places and when peace came remained for six months in order to earn his service medals. He was sent to Egypt where he subsequently contracted malaria and was one of the first to be treated with the new wonder antibiotic, Penicillin.

After he left the army he took up a degree in engineering.

He married Emily in 1950 and had two daughters, Anne and Susan. Sadly, his wife died in 1967 leaving him with his two young daughters to bring up alone.

He found happiness again with his second wife, Pamela, who he wed in 1969. At about the same time he set up his own engineering company with a partner, Peter to form Manmore Engineering Ltd based in Dartford.

George decided to retire in 1987 at the age of 61 and devoted his time to his beloved family, garden and his passion of modelling, particularly radio controlled aircraft.

His war service medals had not been issued post the war, eventually during his retirement he applied for these and they were granted to him. He wore them proudly along with his blazer and red beret when he attended the Parachute Regiment annual gatherings where he met up with old comrades and they reminisced about their war experiences.

In 2008 he developed cancer in his right eye, his eye had to be removed and following the fitting of a prosthetic one he was finally declared free of cancer.

As fate showed its hand, in 2010 he developed liver cancer and after a brief spell of illness passed away at home surrounded by his family on 13th November 2010 aged 84.

He left behind his widow of 40 years, his two daughters, two grandchildren and a great grandchild.

Needless to say, he is greatly missed by his family, friends and neighbours.