A FORMER Captain in the Parachute Regiment has enjoyed a beer in a Dorset tap room with links to his service career.
David Froud, 94, visited the Parachute Tap Room in Sherborne on a minibus trip specially arranged by team members at his care home in the town, Colten Care’s Abbey View.
The Tap Room is located on the site of a former silk mill that manufactured parachutes during World War II including those used in the D-Day landings.
Accompanied by fellow Abbey View residents Roy Carne and Ken Worden, David was welcomed by manager Peter Jump and invited to sample a new ale, currently being launched, called The Paratrooper.
The visitors were also shown a large framed photograph from 1945 capturing the interior of the 19th century mill building at the height of its wartime deployment.
David, who spent 10 years as a Parachute Regiment Captain based in Cyprus, attributes one or two of his aches and pains to his parachuting life.
During his service career he suffered a broken shoulder and several other injuries, yet smiling at his distant memories while on the Tap Room visit, he said: “Those were the best years of my life and I wouldn’t change them for anything.”
Abbey View Companionship Team leader Bev de Bruyn, who accompanied David, Roy and Ken on the trip, added: “We thank Peter and the Tap Room team for hosting us. The entire experience just seemed perfectly made for Captain David Froud.”