‘Bridge Too Far’ war hero dies aged 92

Trevor Barnett was one of the paratroopers who were sent on the ill-fated operation Market Garden in 1944.

As part of the 10th Parachute Battalion, Trevor, of Staveley, was dropped over Arnhem in Holland in a bid to go behind enemy lines and capture the eight bridges that spanned the network of canals and rivers on the Dutch/German border. But the German forces surrounded Arnhem bridge, and with the army unable to break through, the paratroopers surrendered.

Trevor’s daughter, Lorraine Gillway, said: “Can you imagine what it must have been like for a young man?

“It is terrible. We don’t know we are born.”

She added: “But he wouldn’t have called himself a war hero.

“He wouldn’t have thought of it like that. He saw himself doing his duty.”

Trevor was picked up with 50 others by a Dutch farmer and kept in a barn for four weeks, before escaping across Holland, aided by the Dutch, in what is known as the Operation Pegasus escape. Gwyneth Webb, Trevor’s daughter, said: “He didn’t speak much about his experiences, but you could tell there was trauma at times. But in those days you just got on with it.”

Lorraine added: “When somebody is alive, you take it for granted. It is not until they have gone that you sit down and really start to think about the life lived.”

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