British Korean War veteran: ‘Bury me in S. Korea’

A British Korean War veteran, who had visited South Korea every year to pay respect to his fallen fellow soldiers, will be buried in this country.

According to CNN on Saturday, James Grundy, who died at age of 90 after suffering from cancer, will be buried at the graveyard of UN troops at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan. The late Grundy expressed his wish to the cemetery in 2018, saying “After I die, I wish to be buried with my fellow soldiers,” and it has been accepted.

Grundy served on the British military’s corpse collection unit from February 1951 to June 1953. Having joined the military at age 19, he moved around battlefields to collect more than 90 bodies of fallen British and American soldiers for nearly three years. When he visited the graves of UN troops in 2019, he told The Dong-A Ilbo, “Collecting the bodies of soldiers who had died several months ago was so difficult, and I still have nightmares in my dreams even today.”

After being discharged from the military, Grundy served as soccer player and police officer. He visited the UN Memorial Cemetery at his own expenses every May from 1988 to 2019. He suffered from trauma from the war, but he said he felt peace at the graves. “My grandfather kept his promise to his fellow soldiers that ‘I'll come back to you. I won't forget you,’” his adopted granddaughter Brenda Eun-jeong Park said.

“A number of Korean War veterans around the world wish to be buried in South Korea where they fought with their fellow soldiers,” CNN reported.


asap@donga.com