He was born the same year as my dad, and like my dad, was born after his dad was posted overseas in the war.

I remember my father saying how strange it was to meet HIS father for the first time when he was 5 - suddenly there was this stranger in the house.

My grandfather fortunately wasn't violent, or a drinker, but I never saw the same closeness between him and dad that I did between my mother and her parents.