A 94-year-old former Captain in the Parachute Regiment has enjoyed a beer in a Dorset tap room with links to his service career.
David Froud visited the Parachute Tap Room in Sherborne on a minibus trip specially arranged by team members at his care home in the town, Colten Care’s Abbey View.
The Tap Room is located on the site of a former silk mill that manufactured parachutes during World War II including those used in the D-Day landings.
Accompanied by fellow Abbey View residents Roy Carne and Ken Worden, David was welcomed by Tap Room Manager Peter Jump and invited to sample a new ale, currently being launched, called The Paratrooper.
The visitors were also shown a large framed photograph from 1945 capturing the interior of the 19th century mill building at the height of its wartime deployment.
David, who spent ten years as a Parachute Regiment Captain based in Cyprus, attributes one or two of his aches and pains at age 94 to his parachuting life.
During his service career, he suffered a broken shoulder and several other injuries, yet smiling at his distant memories while on the Tap Room visit, he said: “Those were the best years of my life and I wouldn’t change them for anything.”
Abbey View Companionship Team Leader Bev de Bruyn, who accompanied David, Roy and Ken on the trip, said: “We thank Peter and the Tap Room team for hosting us. The entire experience just seemed perfectly made for Captain David Froud!”
Peter said: “It was a great pleasure and honour to host our visitors from Abbey View. It was extra special to learn that David has a personal connection with the Parachute Regiment.”
