Simon Buckley

Simon Buckley left school at the age of 14 in 1969, and spent the next 20 years working with merchant ships, salvage tugs and cranes on the Manchester Ship Canal. Many of the teenager's colleagues had served in the Royal and Merchant Navies in the Second World War. The decline of shipping in the 1980s led Simon to take a number of construction jobs which coincided with his diagnosis of dyslexia at the age of 35. Nevertheless, he embarked upon a Batchelors followed by a Masters Degrees in Construction Engineering, and Simon worked in this field for the next 20 years.

Since retirement, Simon has been involved in the restoration of military vehicles, the manufacturing of parts for wartime vehicles, motorcycles and bicycles, and he actively supports a number of military vehicle events around the country. With more time on his hands, Simon started to delve into the contents of his family's archive, and began to piece together the achievements of a man who had featured in Simon's childhood although at the time he did not have any real understanding of what his great uncle had been through.  

Major Robert Challoner served in the First and Second World Wars and was Mentioned in Dispatches and awarded a Military Cross in each conflict. Initially denied the chance to sign up again in 1939, on account of his age and injuries, including the loss of an eye during the fourth day of the Battle of the Somme, during the Second World War Bob succeeded in his mission to serve his country once more, but was captured by the Germans and imprisoned in Germany and France. However, with the help of a newly formed French Resistance group, Bob escaped and made a home run via the Pat O'Leary escape line over the Pyrenees to Gibraltar and home.

Uncovering these remarkable events led Simon on a voyage of discovery, both in research and travelling in Bob's footsteps, to bring his fascinating story to life.