Bobby re-united with wartime Testament

And this week, we were able to present the moving souvenir to the fallen Royal Ulster Rifleman’s 86-year-old brother when he called into our office.

Bobby Hilton, from Trostan Avenue, had actually missed the story about his elder brother’s Bible when he first looked through the paper: “I was too busy looking at all the pictures of the Memorial Park events! It was only when my niece Bertha Scott rang me up to tell me that I went back and spotted it.”

We were able to tell Bobby that the Bible had been passed to us by local man Paddy Faith, whose father Tommy had been best friends with Rifleman Hilton when they lived near to each other at Garfield Place in the pre-war years.

“I remember that my brother Frank and Tommy were great pals and when Frank went to the army, Tommy was always round at our house to see that we were alright. I’d like to thank his son Paddy for his part in this great story,” said Bobby.

As detailed in last week’s edition, Frank Hilton died in the final stages of the Second World War while serving with the Royal Ulster Rifles which was part of the famous 6th Airborne Division. Frank had fought on D-Day when he landed by glider and latterly in Belgium and Holland before losing his life in the crossing of the River Rhine in April 1945.

Bobby recalled: “I remember Frank telling us that he had no problem volunteering for the glider infantry role - he got the princely sum of sixpence a day as danger money!”