00:00On foot. I declare this Christopher Turley Armed Forces Hub open.
00:05Go for it. Yay!
00:10So we're here at the opening of the Christopher Turley Armed Forces Hub, and Christopher Turley was your dad?
00:15He was, yes.
00:16So you're Andy, Andy Turley?
00:18I am Andrew Turley, yes.
00:20Andy, you're obviously a military man yourself, just tell us a little bit about your own journey in the services.
00:25My own journey. While I left home at 17, my dad was reluctant for me to go and I managed to get him drunk and he signed the papers.
00:33Yeah, that's one way to do it.
00:35So I left home at 17, joined the army in 1991, joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and served as a combat medical technician for 23 and a half years.
00:46I left in 2014.
00:49I took part in, well, travelled many places around the world, part in five operational tours.
00:55Wow.
00:56Always as a frontline combat medic, so that was Bosnia with the United Nations or United Nations Protection Force.
01:02And I went back with a peacekeeping force under the stabilisation force in the 90s, late 90s.
01:10I served in Kosovo in the early 2000s, Iraq in 2003, Royal Military Academy's hand test for a while as a medic.
01:18And then I sort of finished off my time with another combat tour in Afghanistan, where I worked with C Squadron, the King's War of Hussars, who had deployed an infantry role.
01:29That was 2012 and then I left in 2014.
01:33That's a busy, that's a busy life, isn't it, up till now.
01:36Yeah, yeah.
01:37So your dad, he was a serviceman, he ended up settling in Dawley. How did that come about?
01:43Well, he settled in Hollinswood. So my uncle was posted to Donington. My auntie's parents, my mother's parents, they wanted to move locally as well.
01:55So my dad bought a house in Hollinswood. And then when he left, he eventually moved into that property.
02:02My grandparents moved to a small council bungalow in Dawley. So he came here about 2004 after he left the army.
02:11He worked at Cosford Aerospace Museum up until about 2011, so we oversaw the development of that into the museum that it is now.
02:19And then he got involved in politics with being elected councillor of the Nedge Ward in Hollinswood.
02:27And I think he served on about six or seven councils over this time.
02:31Obviously Telford and Reakin councillor as well. And he was on a lot of other committees and societies.
02:38I think most close to his heart was the Randley Valley, where he worked very hard to get that back into the nature reserve that it is now.
02:46And he was honoured with a plaque and a tree down there a few weeks ago.
02:51So he made his mark both in the services world and in the political world by the sounds of it.
02:57What was his role in the services?
02:59Well realistically he joined up as a clerk in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
03:06But there was obviously a call in there. He had a good friend that they both decided they were going to do something different.
03:12And they both trained hard to try and get into the Special Forces, which they both did.
03:17His friend was Vincent Phillips, who went into the SAS and he died on the Bravo 2-0 mission in the first Gulf War.
03:26Dad went on to join something called the 14 Intelligence Corps, which was a sort of fairly secret undercover unit that worked deep undercover in Northern Ireland.
03:35And he referred to as the dead. Off the back of that, later on in the early 80s, he was asked to go to Whitehall for an interview, which he successfully passed.
03:45And then he disappeared to start training to serve at the British Embassy in what was then the Soviet Union.
03:51So he went there in 1984. Sorry, 1984.
03:57And we were there till late 1988, where he carried out his work for whatever he was doing there, most of which we don't know about.
04:07Though we do know he was involved in the aftermath of Chernobyl, where he was sent to Kiev by the government to try and find out what was going on, to take samples.
04:16And he also worked with organizing and planning for the removal of Soviet double agents, most notably Olev Gordievsky,
04:25whose story is in a book called The Soldier and the Spy, which sort of covers that thing.
04:36So he did lots of bits and pieces in Russia, and then he just went on to serve in various other HQ units.
04:42During the first Gulf War, he was in GCHQ underground, sort of dealing with that from an intelligence side.
04:50He never spoke about anything, really. He kept a lot of what he had done, a lot of what he had seen,
04:54fairly close to his chest, and most of it, even as his family, we didn't really learn about until a few months before his passing.
05:01At what age was he? Was he a good age?
05:03He was 79. Unfortunately, he succumbed to strokes and severe cancers, which we possibly think may have been caused by exposure to radiation,
05:16especially with the aftermath of Chernobyl, but obviously we've got no definitive.
05:21But that's our belief, anyway, because it was unexpected. He was a very, very, very fit, healthy man.
05:26He was still running over the Reakin at the age of 55, so he wasn't one to sit around.
05:33So why is it important that we have these hubs, then?
05:36They're massive support. Obviously, we've got a huge veterans' community now.
05:40Now, the 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall was...
05:44I don't think there was a year where the British forces weren't involved in a conflict somewhere,
05:50be that the first Gulf War, Northern Ireland was still going on, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone,
05:55and then we obviously moved on to the second Gulf War and Iraq, which went on for over a decade.
06:01So you're talking hundreds of thousands of troops that have been deployed and obviously experienced stuff,
06:08which is out of the norm.
06:09And if they've come back and they've fallen on hard times and mental health issues,
06:13they're homeless, they're struggling financially, struggling to get a job,
06:16a hub like this, and this one in particular, is a one-stop shop where they can come,
06:21get the help, the information, the guidance and the direction that they need
06:26to be able to move on with their lives, to be able to get back on their feet,
06:31to have a friendly face or a friendly ear to talk to.
06:35And they're invaluable because they're also a great place to meet other veterans
06:39with something in common so you can sit and share stories and talk about stuff, yeah, absolutely.
06:45So, did you know, you know, with your own experience really in the services,
06:50and your dad's, I mean, it does take a toll, doesn't it?
06:53You know, it's not like a nine-to-five, you clock in and clock out.
06:56Oh, no, absolutely not. It does take a massive toll.
07:00I mean, you may be lucky enough to have spent your time within a camp somewhere,
07:05but for a lot of guys who would have been out on the front lines with some pretty experience
07:11and some pretty hard conditions, both visually, climatically and mentally.
07:17You could be, you know, on patrol for days on end, you could be in combat for days on end,
07:22as people found out, 2006 specifically.
07:25And all that takes a toll on you when you see comrades die, comrades injured,
07:29civilians, you know, in the same situation.
07:32It's a massive, you know, a massive, massive toll on, you know, emotionally, mentally.
07:38So to have somewhere like this to come, focus, get the help you need
07:42if you are suffering from those issues, you know, it's just amazing.
07:45And what does it mean to be, you know, to come here and see your dad's name on the plaque
07:51and it be written in his honour?
07:53Oh, fantastic. I mean, never expected it.
07:56They did tell me after he passed away that they were planning something special
07:59because of how he had been received within the community over the last sort of 15, 20 years.
08:06So, yeah, it's brilliant. I mean, I don't live locally.
08:10So if I am back up in the area, because I still got some family up here,
08:14there's somewhere I can pop into as well and see my dad's name up there,
08:18see his picture on the wall and be proud that, you know,
08:21he's given back to his community and then they've given something to him
08:24to remember him by, which is just a great honour.
08:26Well, thank you, Andy, to yourself and your family for the service on behalf of all of us.
08:31Thank you, sir.
08:32You're welcome.
08:39Hello, hello. Can you all hear me?
08:42Yes, that's the important thing.
08:46You may remember when we had a function here where we said goodbye to Chris
08:52and I was very honoured to say a few words.
08:59Now, I've been asked to repeat the poem I recited after goodbye to Chris.
09:07Can you all hear me?
09:09Yes!
09:10Your charming ways and smiling face are a pleasure to recall.
09:18You had a kind word for everyone and died loved by all.
09:25Your earthly duties are done.
09:28You now live with your God above.
09:31Oh, what glories you've discovered in the Saviour whom you loved.
09:37You're not forgotten, Chris our friend, nor ever will be.
09:43As long as life and memory last, your family and we, your friends, will remember thee.
09:51Our friendship circle has been broken.
10:01Another link gone from the chain.
10:04But though we've parted for a while, we know we'll meet again.
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