Thanks for visiting my Just Giving page. I am hoping to raise some money to help with the upkeep of the NMA where I have been a volunteer for the past 5 years. The theme for this years' walk is Colin Grazier, of whom I shall elaborate on a little more below. The challenge is to walk 15 miles from the centre of Tamworth across some fields and along some canals up and down a few hills and past a couple of pubs (where light refreshment may well be incorporated) and eventually on to the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire

Able Seaman Colin Grazier was one of three British servicemen whose brave actions shortened the Second World War by as much as two years. Until recently this bravery remained virtually unknown and uncelebrated.

Colin was serving on HMS Petard when in October 1942, he and fellow seaman Lt Anthony Fasson lost their lives retrieving vital German codebooks from a sinking U-boat. The third sailor, Tommy Brown, survived the war, only to die in a house fire while still a teenager.

It was the precious documents they seized which enabled Bletchley Park’s code breakers to crack the Enigma codes and so win the Battle of the Atlantic. Now recognised as a pivotal moment in world history, the mission was cloaked in secrecy for decades and not even their families could be told they had paved the way for peace.

Colin Grazier was born in Tamworth and married only days before he left to go to sea on the mission in which he lost his life.