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Camden News - by TOM FOOT
Published: 06 November 2008

Joan Colegate, her son John, and war veteran Pam Nenk collecting for the Poppy Appeal at the O2 Centre

At 86, the peace bride is still doing her bit to help war veterans

SHE survived a “gas chamber”, helped shoot down enemy aircraft and became the first British woman to marry in Germany after the end of the Second World War.
But even at 86 years old Joan Colegate still feels she hasn’t done her bit.
The war veteran and radar specialist came to the aid of the British Legion Poppy Appeal in the O2 Centre in Swiss Cottage on Friday.
Ms Colegate, whose son is the manager of the Finchley Road shopping centre, stirred the crowds with stories of bravery and wartime romance and swelled the collection box.
She said: “I volunteered to go to Bielefeld in Germany in 1945 and that was where I met Sergeant Dudley Parker.
“He was doing the catering at a dinner for the Desert Rats British Army division.
“He came up to me and said ‘Any complaints?’
“I said ‘None at all’. Then the German band cheekily started playing Handel’s Wedding March – well that turned out to be just about right.”
An army colonel insisted the pair get married – and days later they tied the knot.
She said: “We were the first British couple to be married in Germany after the war. They called me the ‘peace bride’.”
The couple were happily married for 46 years, living in a village in Devon before moving to Harewood Avenue in Marylebone, until Mr Parker’s death in 1991.
Ms Colegate – who manned the radar in Ash Vale, Hampshire, sounding the alarm when enemy fighter planes were approaching – said it had been a happy marriage that might never have been after she was nearly killed in a freak gas test back in Blighty.
She said: “I was asked to test gas masks. I had to walk through a chamber with the mask but it was faulty. I came out coughing and spluttering and had to be taken to hospital.”
Fellow war veteran Pam Nenk, 83, had come to the refurbished O2 Centre to meet Ms Colegate.
She said: “I think people are more interested in the poppy appeal than they have been for ages – and that’s because they see a lot of people coming back injured from Iraq and Afghanistan. The money goes towards helping those people. We collected £257 here yesterday.”

Order of events

Remembrance Sunday:
• 10am: Service at St Pancras Old Church in Euston Road.
• 11am: Wreath-laying ceremony at the Euston Memorial outside Euston Station

Remembrance Day (Tuesday):
• 10.30am: Camden Mayor Cllr Nurul Islam to join service at St Pancras Church for service for St Pancras Regiment Old Comrades
• 10.45am: Camden Deputy Mayor Cllr Omar Faruque Ansari to attend service at Hampstead Cemetery in Fortune Green.
• Wreaths laid at Hampstead War Memorial by Jack Straw’s Castle and Eversholt Street Memorial at St Mary the Virgin Church

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