Michael Northey, who is in a wheelchair, places a flower on his father’s grave for the first time while keeping a silent vigil over it.
He makes a heartfelt joke, “This is the closest I’ve been to him in 70 years, which is ridiculous.”
Michael was born into a low-income family in Portsmouth’s backstreets, and his father, the youngest of 13 children, departed to fight in Korea when he was still a baby. His body was never recognized; he was killed in action.
With the inscription “Member of the British Army, known unto God,” it rested in an unmarked grave in the UN cemetery in Busan, on the south coast of Korea, for many years.
It now carries his name: Sergeant D. Northey, who passed away on April 24, 1951, at the age of 23.
