Frank Risbridger

09/03/1923 — 18/11/2012
A brief biography

A Southwark Lad


9th Royal Tank Regiment

Born in Newington North, Southwark, on 19th March 1923, Frank was the third child of William Risbridger (born 27th February 1878) and Lilian Agnes Risbridger – née Flowers (born 28th August 1893). His other siblings were: Lillian (13th October 1919), William (23rd May 1921), Phyllis (17th July 1926) and Ruby (20th December 1927).

Having spent most of his early years growing up in Southwark, Frank left home at the young age  

The War in Europe

On 12th June 1944, Frank landed on Sword Beach and was part of ‘Operations Epsom’, ‘Jupiter’ (the battle for Hill 112) and ‘Rebound’. Unfortunately, his tank was hit by an enemy shell and as he kicked his way out, he received burns to his legs, but managed to escape with only 5 seconds to spare. Many others though were not as lucky. It was a long bloody battle, the worst  


Retraining as an engineer


Frank in 1947, just out of the army

Returning home in late 1945, Frank retrained at night school as an engineer, after which he worked for many years as a salesman for steel manufacturing companies. It was around this time that he met his future wife, Barbara Beryl – formerly Flower (born 1st December 1928). They were married at All Saints’ Church, Belvedere, on 13th August 1949.

In order to save money for a house, Frank and his new  

Biking and caravanning

Throughout their life together, Frank and Barbara enjoyed caravanning, and for many years they travelled abroad to France, Italy and Spain. In their earlier years together, Frank even had a motorbike on which they toured Europe!

Apart from all the travelling, Frank was also the Chairman of the Canterbury Branch of the Normandy Veterans Association, for which he raised enough money to enable the veterans to return to Normandy for  



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