Dave Yarnall
23rd September 2008

EULOGY




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.


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.


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.


Chistopher Yarnall
David's Son