A Swansea-born war hero is to be laid to rest in America in a national cemetery close to the grave of John F Kennedy. Clifford Edwin Guard, who died aged 99 last month, will be given the honour as he served in the US Army.
He will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery close to Washington DC with full military honours. As well as Kennedy his grave will be close to that of President William Howard Taft and hundreds of America’s most decorated service personnel. Mr Guard had a decorated military career with numerous medals bestowed upon him for his courage, including France's highest honour the Legion d’Honneur.
Known under the moniker of GI Limey he joined the Merchant Navy during the Great Depression at the age of 15. When the Second World War broke out he took part in the Atlantic convoys before later finding himself in New York when America joined the conflict and he joined the 3rd Armoured Division. After the war he spent much of his life across the Atlantic before returning to Swansea where he had been born in 1924. He died in a care home on May 12.
READ MORE: The incredible story of a Welsh soldier who found himself fighting for the US Army
It means Mr Guard's wish, to be cremated in Wales and buried in Arlington, will now become a reality. His daughters Terry and Coleen explained that he will be buried in American within 16 to 18 months.
Speaking of the honour his daughters said: "It means a tremendous amount to us. We can speak for the family in saying that dad never talked about the war growing up. We never had much of a clue. Even when we studied the Second World War in school dad didn't really say much about it. The only thing we knew is when we went bowling he couldn't bowl because he had shrapnel in his knee, and things like that, but he never really talked about it.
"He came back and had been very affected by all the things he had seen and done during the war. Even when he was in his late 90s he was still having nightmares about it. Once he started talking about it he would tell us some of the stories and that was good. He tried to keep the stories he told us light-hearted. I remember one time he told us how he found a bunker that the German officers had been storing luxury goods in. It was the middle of winter and it was very, very cold and they found a bunch of silk bloomers so they all put the silk bloomers on under their uniforms to help keep them warm."
Mr Guard was born into “abject poverty” in 1924, sleeping on a straw mattress as a child. He studied psychology at the much-revered Purdue University after the war and went to New York, going on to have a successful career in the US government. He also helped set up the Swansea Centre for Drug and Alcohol Abuse on his return home and sold poppies every year in the city’s market.
Speaking of the lessons their dad taught them his daughters said: "Dad came from a hard life but he really loved his kids and his family and he taught all of us the value of a good attitude. He always used to say: 'Attitude is everything'. It served all of us well throughout our whole lives. Positive attitude, power of attitude – you can change your life with a good attitude and ruin it with a bad one. That and taking responsibility for your actions, your mistakes, and your triumphs as well.
"Dad used to like to sing a lot and travelling in the car with dad anywhere was like a musical – he actually had a beautiful tenor voice and would call himself the poor man's Harry Secombe but he did sound very much like him. It was beautiful. At his funeral we played a song that dad had sung without any accompaniment – Only God Can Make a Tree. There were songs we grew up listening to. All the old war songs we know off by heart. We know all the words to songs because of dear old dad.
"Dad grew up in real poverty when he was young. Coming from that background to coming to the States, becoming an America –, he left home to serve at sea when he was 15 on a number of different ships as a cabin boy when his dad was a merchant seaman. For a poor Swansea boy to get into the States, get his high school education, let alone get his degree from Purdue University, and make himself what he became, he made it really big compared to some of those he grew up with in Swansea."
Mr Guard was a lifetime member of the American foreign legion and the Royal British Legion and a veteran of foreign wars and he managed to meet many prominent people through his life, which made his daughters think of him as their very own Forrest Gump. They said: "He met the King of Saudi Arabia, he met the Queen of England, the sitting French President, sitting US President, sitting Prime Minister – it was like the scenes in Forrest Gump. The character kept showing up and meeting all these famous people and Dad was a bit like that. He managed to meet all these famous people of no effort of his own.
"He stayed humble throughout that. He was never arrogant. He always said: 'I'm not a hero – the boys who didn't come back are the heroes'. When he was given the French Legion of Honour medal he actually said as he was accepting it: 'I feel like a fraud accepting this medal because I am not a hero. The boys who didn't come back, they are the heroes, but I will accept it on their behalf'."
His daughters said he would always be remembered as "an absolute gentleman, who was always dressed nicely, spoke very well, and treated people with kindness". They said: "Even at the end of his life when he moved into a nursing home suffering with dementia, even then all of the staff the one thing they all say is he was always so kind and polite and a gentleman. He always said: 'Thank you ma'am, thank you sir'. He was just a wonderful guy.
"He is going to be remembered for having a marvellous sense of humour and being humble. In Swansea for the years he spent selling poppies in the market. The boys in the market used to say: 'We don't get a look in when Cliffy is around. The ladies flock to Cliffy because they want to hear the Yankee who served in the Second World War.' He really cared about the people who served."
Mr Clifford's life story, GI Limey: A Welsh-American's Second World War, can be purchased by clicking here.
