A WEYMOUTH campaigner and ex-soldier is urging people to remember the fallen tomorrow.

Derek Julian, 76, is a patient governor for the Dorset County Hospital Foundation Trust, he raised money to clean up the Weymouth American Memorial and he served in the Korean War from 1950 until the armistice was signed in 1953.

Mr Julian will be attending the Remembrance Service on Weymouth seafront tomorrow.

He said: “We should always remember because of the sacrifices that people made in the past in standing up for what they believed in.”

At 18 years old he went to serve in Korea, with South Korean and United Nations forces, against North Korea and China. The United Nations was concerned about the spread of communism within the region.

Mr Julian said: “There are still about 1,000 British soldier’s bodies lying under that ground that haven’t returned home.

“I’m not saying I saw a lot of action but it was like going back in history by 10,000 years. The temperatures were really cold, like Siberia, about minus 30 or minus 40 degrees.

“We used to queue up for breakfast - we had bacon and egg and in two seconds it had frozen solid.

“It was a very hostile country.”

He was five years old when World War Two broke out and vividly remembers spending his childhood in and out of air raid shelters in Weymouth town centre.

He said: “Weymouth and Dorset was a huge military camp for the D-Day landings and so it was bombed about 55 times during the war.

“I remember I went down to the Ferrybridge and the American soldiers were lining up ready for D-Day and they were throwing their coins away, because it was bad luck to have foreign money in France. I got about £5, which was a lot back then.

“At night the Americans used to let off smoke canisters around the area so that the German planes wouldn’t know where to bomb.”

He added: “Chapelhay was very badly bombed. The Swannery car park was built using a lot of the rubble from the bombings.

“I remember the time in Easter 1942 the Echo office was bombed on St Thomas Street. I was in the air raid shelter underneath where the walkway is through to the Rendezvous bar and nightclub.”

Mr Julian had a very lucky escape from one German plane.

He said: “I was going up the Chapelhay steps with a girl and a German Messerschmitt came over and started firing. A total stranger grabbed us and flung us into a nearby alley and covered us with his body. The bullets went along the steps.

“After it was over he just got up and walked away. Every time I go past there I remember it.”

Remembrance services in Dorset

Weymouth: 10.55am on Weymouth seafront by the war memorial at the Pier Bandstand.

Portland: The service will take place at the cenotaph at Portland Heights at 10.55am.

Dorchester: 10.55am at the war memorial at the bottom of South Street.

Bridport: Starts at 10.40am in East Street, followed by a ceremony at the war memorial. This will be followed by a service at St Mary’s Church and will conclude at West Street.

Beaminster: The parade leaves the fire station at 2.40pm and will make its way to St Mary’s Church.

Netherbury: People will gather at the square at 10.15am before heading to the war memorial, followed by a service at Netherbury Church.

Lyme Regis: Parade will leave Langmoor Gardens at 2.40pm and will go to the church.