WWII: The brother who survived the war to die on an iron lung in a foreign land

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Peggy Larkam, of Derby, had a brother who survived the fighting of World War Two only to die tragically from polio, after spending six months in an iron lung in India. Pat Parkin tells her family’s story.

FOR many years, Peggy Larkam has, on Remembrance Sunday, joined ex-pupils and staff of the old Derby School at their war memorial outside St Helen’s House, to remember former pupils who perished in war.

The memory of her brother, Peter Sanford, a captain in the Royal Artillery and an old Derbeian, is never far away.

He survived the fighting in the Second World War but then died, aged 23, from infantile paralysis (polio) in hospital in India, just weeks before the hostilities ended.

“It was so tragic. He had survived the war and had been serving in Burma, when he was transferred to Calcutta as a staff captain.

“Ten days later, he was taken seriously ill and spent six months in an lung. He was sent to Bombay where preparations were in hand for his return home, when he suddenly died,” said Peggy.

The family had been sent regular bulletins on his progress and a telegram, stating that he had been taken off the danger list, had been received only a short time before, giving them hope that he might make a good recovery.

Then, suddenly, his father, Dudley Sanford, one of Derby’s leading railway engineers, received a telephone call from a man named Montgomery.

He turned out to be the Field Marshal’s brother, a vicar, who was staying at the Midland Hotel in Derby.

Mr Sanford, who was very deaf, as a result of injuries he suffered while fighting in the First World War, handed the telephone to his daughter.

Peggy discovered that the Rev Montgomery had been visiting India and seen Peter when he went to the hospital.

Knowing he was booked to come to Derby to preach at St Andrew’s Church in London Road, he made inquiries about his progress with the intention of passing on the information personally to his family.

Said Peggy: “Unfortunately, it was not good news. He told us he was sorry to have to report that Peter was gravely ill.

“As we had received the telegram about him being off the danger list only a week before, I thought he might be a bit of a scaremonger.

“He asked us to go to the Midland Hotel to meet him and we found he certainly was not like that. We had the news a week later that Peter had died.

“My poor parents were devastated. Father took it very badly. He was not all that well himself and, within a few weeks, contracted cancer.

“He never got over the shock of Peter’s death and died three years later. My brother was only 23 and the apple of my parents’ eye.”

Peggy and her brother, who was two years older, were great friends. He was very clever and had passed his examinations to go to Cambridge University to read history, but decided to volunteer for the Royal Artillery instead.

His hobby was collecting very old books and he was a talented poet.

Their parents were a well-known couple in Derby. Dudley Sanford was a first class graduate in engineering from Caius College, Cambridge, a brilliant mathematician and worked all his life in the railway industry.

He joined Derby Locomotive Works in 1912 and, after serving in the First World War, returned and eventually became chief locomotive draughtsman at Derby.

During the Second World War, he was headquarters fuel efficiency officer for the seven main works of the London Midland and Scottish Railway.

His last post before he retired early, due to ill health, was as superintending engineer of the Locomotive Testing Station at Rugby. He died in 1948, aged 58.

His wife, Dinah, worked constantly with charities and organisations in Derby, including the Mother’s Union, Townswomen’s Guild, Young Wives, District Nurses Committee, Women’s Voluntary Service and Red Cross.

Her son used to teasingly call her Mrs Busybody because, he said, she was always “into everything”.

A beautiful redhead, Dinah Hannaford was the daughter of a railway architect. Dudley saw her walking in Osmaston Road, Derby, one day and inveigled a friend to introduce them.

It was love at first sight and by the time they had spent a total of eight hours together, they were engaged.

But the First World War intervened and he went off to serve as a captain in the Royal Engineers in France, Greece and Turkey.

It was five years before they met again and their wedding, in January 1919, was equally as swift as their engagement with Dudley rushing home straight from the boat to take his bride to church.

“Apparently, when he knelt down in his high boots during the wedding service, there was a hole in his sole. He hadn’t even had time to get a new pair,” laughed Peggy.

During the war, Peggy worked on farms as a landgirl, returning home when her father became ill. In 1953, she married Patrick Larkam, who was also a railway engineer. They have two sons and five grandchildren.

While in the iron lung in India, Peter dictated a poem he had written and this was sent to his family after his death.

Called A Heart at Peace, it read as follows:

If I should die, it would not be in vain, for life has been most full of light and grace.

‘Tis true, I would give much to see my home again,

To smell the flowers in the familiar place;

To walk the hills and see an early dawn,

The sun come up with skirt of red and gold;

To tread once more upon a well-kept lawn

And feel beneath my fingers firm damp mould.

For all these things. I thank God, and for more

For friendships formed and kept, for giving joy,

For love and hope and laughter, clear and pure;