Scarborough veteran Ken Keld writes book of his experiences in Korean War

A Scarborough war veteran who served in the Korean War has written a memoir about his experiences.
Scarborough veteran Ken Keld writes book of his experiences in Korean WarScarborough veteran Ken Keld writes book of his experiences in Korean War
Scarborough veteran Ken Keld writes book of his experiences in Korean War

The book, called You'll Go To Korea!, is the memoir of 87-year-old Ken Keld, from Scarborough.

Four years ago, Mr Keld was inspired to write the book after talking to a Vicar who told him that everyone should write down what they’ve done in life.

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Mr Keld joined the 2nd Battalion Green Howards in 1952, and after a few months, he was stationed at Barnard Castle, and soon after found himself going to Korea with the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment.

Mr Keld said: “I was 18, I joined up on the 17th April 1952 and I went to Richmond to the Green Howards. On the second day, I saw the selection officer who asked many questions about me and what I’d like to do, but you know it wasn’t what I wanted to do, it was what we were told to do.

“He said have you thought about signing on and I said no, and he said well you’ll go to Korea with the Duke of Wellingtons. I actually went (to Korea) many months later. That’s what the army did in those days, if you signed on then you wouldn’t go to Korea.

“I was the first on the list and I was the youngest.”

Mr Keld was inspired to write about his experience in the Korean War after talking to a vicar four years ago. After the talk with the vicar, Mr Keld started to write down his own experiences in Korea, and the book got sent to Korea to be printed and published after a Korean man named Phil Kim, who was living in Bradford, asked if this was possible.

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Mr Keld said: “The publisher said ‘can you do some more of the book?’, but I couldn’t add much more to what I’d done myself. I asked if they would be interested in other people’s stories of Korea and they said yes.”

The book is set in two halves; the first is Mr Keld’s own experience and the second is a collection of short memoirs from other Korean war veterans.

In the first month the book was published in Korea, it sold 1000 copies. Shortly after, Mr Keld received queries from people in America, who asked for an English version of the book.

Mr Keld said: “I put a message on Facebook, and a gentleman who lives in Greece said he had a friend in Germany who’d help me, and he was going to talk me through it and I said ‘John I’ll have forgotten it all when we get off the phone’.”

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John Skull, a friend of Mr Keld, said: “I use Facebook to keep in touch with some old Navy chums and someone posted that they were friends with a Korean War veteran who had written a memoir, but had no clue how to get it published. As I had published my own memoir on Amazon earlier in the year, I offered to help. For me, documents like Ken’s memoir have an important place in the historical archive right alongside the books of historians, researchers and academics.

“As it turns out, it is a very enjoyable book, told from the perspective of someone who was actually in the trenches.”

Eight years ago, Mr Keld wrote the 2nd Battalion Green Howards newsletter when the Malton branch disbanded, and he wrote about his experiences in the Korean War.

Today, Mr Keld is still active in the Korean War Veterans Association and he is the Vice Chairman of the 2nd Battalion Green Howrads, and he is the secretary of the 2nd Battalion Green Howards Pickering branch.

You’ll Go To Korea! is available to purchase online.

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