A LETTER from the President of South Korea has arrived at the homes of thousands of Korean War veterans in Britain to thank them for their bravery in the conflict, which started 60 years ago today.

It became known as the Forgotten War, but many old soldiers in Oxfordshire will never be able to forget their battle in Korea in the early 1950s.

And the letter from Lee Myung-bak, the President of South Korea, was sent to show them that the nation they saved has not forgotten those who came to their rescue.

George Buckley, 85, of Fallowfields, Bicester, served in Korea in 1951, was one of the veterans delighted to receive the President’s thanks.

Mr Buckley, who organised ambulance operations for the Royal Army Service Corps, will today remember his brother Dennis, who died in Korea, aged 20, in 1951, while serving with the Royal Leicestershire Regiment.

Mr Buckley said: “I was chuffed to get the letter from the President of South Korea earlier this week.

“This just goes to show that they have never forgotten us.”

The North Korean invasion marked the start of a bloody three-year conflict.

Today, former servicemen will quietly reflect on the fate of their fallen comrades.

After war broke out, the Chinese offered help to the North, while the USA, Britain and other United Nations members came to the South’s aid.

It was also the first time that a United Nations army went into action.

Many of the British soldiers who fought in the conflict were National Servicemen, called up to serve in the armed forces for two years.

For Lionel Webb, 77, of Malford Road, Barton, in Oxford, the scars of his shrapnel wounds have faded, but memories of the fighting never will.

The father-of-four, who has six grandchildren, worked at the Cowley car factory for 40 years.

But before he settled in Oxford he was sent to Korea with the Durham Light Infantry. In 1952, he was lucky to escape with his life when he was wounded by a grenade explosion, which left him with shrapnel wounds to his mouth and back.

“I was in hospital for about 14 weeks in Japan. They call it the Forgotten War but I will never forget it and I don’t think the war should be forgotten,” he said.

“My mate Denis Baker, who was with me in the Durham Light Infantry, was killed and I will be remembering him along with all the other soldiers who died.”

Leonard Nicholls, 77, who is a member of the Royal British Legion’s Ramsden branch, will today fly the South Korean flag at his home in School Road, Finstock.

The married father-of-one, who has two grandchildren, has owned the flagpole for more than three years and uses it to display a vast array of flags.

Mr Nicholls, was in Korea with the Royal Artillery from 1952 to 1953, as part of his National Service.

He said: “Flying the flag on the anniversary is a way of remembering those soldiers who didn’t make it back. Quite a few of my comrades got killed.

“I took part in one of the battles of the Hook, a big hill which became an important strategic point. I remember our guns blazing away.”

After working as a water engineer in Essex for 40 years, Mr Nicholls and his wife Maureen, now 72, moved to Oxfordshire. Their daughter Lynn, 50, lives in Stonesfield.

Bert Davey, 72, the Swindon and Wiltshire branch secretary of the British Korean Veterans Association, said: “The President of South Korea’s letter has been sent to all known veterans through our national body.

“I lost my brother Tom in the Korean War in June 1951, when he was 21.

“He was in the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry and I was just 13 at the time.

“It was such a mystery to us, because Korea was on the other side of the world.

“Today I will take a quiet moment to remember him, which is something I do every day of my life.

“It’s unprecedented for the President to write to veterans and this shows that their efforts in the Forgotten War have never been forgotten by the people of South Korea.”

  • Korea had been part of the Japanese Empire until 1945, but the end of the Second World War saw it placed under the protection of the United Nations.

Russian forces occupied the north of the country, above the 38th Parallel, while US forces controlled the south.

As relations between the Allied powers deteriorated and the Cold War began, a Communist regime was established in North Korea, while a capitalist regime took charge in the South. After two years of tension, North Korea launched an invasion of South Korea at 4am on June 25, 1950.

In the face of opposition from North Korea’s allies, the Soviet Union and China, the United Nations agreed to send troops, including British Army, RAF and Royal Navy units, to defend the South.

More than 450,000 South Korean, US and UN troops died, with many more wounded. It is estimated more than two million North Korean and Chinese troops were killed and wounded.

The guns fell silent on July 27, 1953, after a ceasefire agreement was reached. A formal peace treaty has never been signed.

The Korean peninsula remains divided along the 38th Parallel to this day, with a democratic government in the South and a hardline Communist regime in the North.

  • Additional reporting by Adam Wakeling