Joe Eastwood
Lancashire Fusiliers
Anyone who knew Dave with his quirky sense of
humour would realise how amused he would have been to know
that he had been instrumental in bring the LFs back to Kirkham
after 43 years when we were stationed at Weeton Camp,just
a few miles away.
I was then a Sgt instructing on Cadres which were about selecting
young men to become future None Commisioned Officers in the
LFs, and Dave was on 2 or maybe 3 of these cadres.
He did well, coming in the top 4 or 5 ,and was especially
noted for his sense of fun and his popularity.
The next time I recall seeing him was at a games evening in
in Hong Kong, where he had indeed been promoted to Cpl,and
his job was a Company Clerk, which could be seen as fairly
boring,but he was essential in keeping 2 fairly dim CSMs from
making too many mistakes and by using his command of the English
language,which was far superior to theirs.
The Powers that be decided that the LFs were to be disbanded
, and the soldiers posted out to the other 3 Battalions, Dave
always maintained that it was designed to raise the quality
of the other 3 and I agreed with him.
We each went our separate ways and 40 years passed in what
seemed like fast forwarding a video.
I had decided that I would start a web site dedicated to the
LFs and one of the fiirst few contributors was Dave.
His first question was "do you remember me"
I was amused, because of all the things you could call Dave
Yarnall, "Forgettable" was not one of them.
In spite of his own increasing disability and the loving care
he was giving to his dear wife Anne, he would constantly be
asking me if there was anything he could do for the site,a
bit of research perhaps?
I would give him something to do,perhaps look up a few facts,etc,and
I would subsequently get emails and phone calls from Embassies,
Museums and News Agencies all over the world who had been
contacted by Dave in his desire to do the job well.
This brings us to the events of the last 10 days, when Dave
rang me to tell me of his latest medical problems.
He would have to face another bypass,having had the first
one almost 20 years ago.
Typical of Dave, he did not bleat or moan about his own problems,
he was once again much more concerned about the effect his
possible death would have upon Anne and the family.
A fine family man, a loyal friend and a good Lancashire Fusilier.
Thank you.
Joe.
Omnia Audax XXth.
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Linda Ashley Nee Yarnall
David's Sister
From a young age David had always wanted tobe a soldier, spending
many a day quietly playing with his soldiers'making trenches
in the soil and if it was raining he would bring the soil
and lumps of grass inside
I remember when he asked dad to sign his army papers,
Dad immediately said No, he had been in the army himself and
did not want that life for his's son's. Davis respected dad's
wishes and went on to College, but overtime dad realised that
David was unhappy at not following his dreams and dad allowed
David to join the Army. I was a very lucky girl them, each
time David came home he would bringme a doll from the area
he had been These dolls are long gone as somany things but
the memories will always stay.
I am sure David would be so proud to have the Fusiliers here
today, they were a huge part of his life. He had just sent
us some photos they showed him on the parade just a few weeks
ago you can see the pride on his face sitting on what he called
his tank. mum and Dad were so proud of all David's achievement
His life was filled with pride when he brought Anne home for
the first time and then his children Sarah, Amanda, and Christopher.
David will be sadly missed by all , but I hope he will
now be with our dad,
Our Mum
Our Mum it is very hard ,you don't think your child
will pass away before you .I can't cry due to my illness so
I feel that my heart is very heavy.
I would have liked to have been with you today but my
82 year old legs won't carry me . David said that I had always
made him proud , just being his mum
Today it is my turn to say how proud it is to have him
as a son.
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Gary Yarnall
Davids Brother
I would like to say on behalf of my family, that i was honoured
today to stand beside the men who served with David. I was
not an adult LF, but today i was made to feel like one, thank
you guys. I was asked to put in words what i said about Dave
today so here goes, I may not be verbatum but here goes. OWDOO,
I really wanted to start with that word, because that is how
David always started our conversations on the phone. I really
did not know David for about the first 26 years or so because
of our age difference. When i was about 5 or 6 David went
off and joined the Army, where he met the brothers he served
with over there (nodding towards the group of Lancashire Fusiliers
in the church). I do remember some things about David when
I was young, one of them being, when he came home on leave
we had to share the same bed, and the bed was up against the
wall, so when i went to bed i used to go to sleep against
the wall, but in the morning i always woke up on the outside
of the bed, this was due to David coming home and feeling
his side of the bed was cold, so he used to roll me onto the
cold side of the bed and get into the warm side where i had
been sleeping haha, cheers you devil you. I know David ended
up in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, but he was a very proud
member of the Lancashire Fusiliers, and he told me a few funny
storied of his times ther, especially Hong Kong, but I will
only tell you one, and that was the night he went out for
a meal, and after the meal the waitress asked David if he
had enjoyed the meal to which David replied yes, the chicken
was nice, what chicken asked the waitress? the chicken with
the meal replied David, oh no the waitress replied, that was
not chisken that was snake. On hearing this, David quickly
went to the toilets and gave the restaurant their meal back.
When I joined the 3rd Bn RRF I thought that I would at last
get to know David, but a few months later David left the Army.
After a few years I got a posting to England and then managed
to start visiting and staying with him. This was the time
I really got to know the brother I had always longed for.
David taught my how to drink whiskey and how to dring wine,
to the detriment of my head the next morning. I also found
out what a really good sense of humour he had and what a loving
family man he was, especially his grandchildren, I remember
he took Mathew his grandson to town and Mathew was talking
about football boots and lo and behold they were stood outside
a JJB Sports Store, so David said to Mathew, well lets go
in here and you can show me the type you mean, so in they
went, they were shown the boots and David said, well you might
as well have them now. David said to me that the smile of
joy on Mathews face made David so verry happy (I know I didnt
say this at the time but, David has a granddaughter also,
called Heather, and without question, David loves Heather
just as much). At this time I started to loose it a bit so
I decided to close by saying, when David used to end a phone
call he would do so by telling a joke, which, 9 times out
of ten was bad, and he knew this when I used to say "yeah
right, and its good night from me", and David would reply,
and it's good night from him. Just like the two Ronnies. Well
it's good night from me David, but it's not goodbye for you're
always in my heart and my mind. There were other things I
wanted to say at the time but words would not come to me,
like how Dave was pleased as punch to be the No 2 Battalion
squad squash player, (mind you there were only 2 squad members
at the time haha and if you were to open Dave up like a stick
of Blackpool rock, you would have seen Lancashire Fusilier
stencilled around him. Although I was not old enough to serve
as an adult Lancashire Fusiler, the one thing Dave did teach
me about 10 years before I was to join when I was about 5
was, that every letter in Lancashire Fusiliers had a word
and it was this:
Let
All
Nations
Come
And
See
How
I
Respect
England
For
U
See
I
Live
In
Englands
Richest
Shire |
Rest Easy Bro.
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Chistopher
Yarnall
David's Son
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