On this year’s Remembrance Sunday, commemorations will mark the centenary of Armistice Day 1918, the ceasefire halting four years of carnage unparalleled in history that were the first world war.

In Whitehall, political leaders will gather at the Cenotaph and media will focus on their behavioural nuances, scrutinising for lack of attention to the profound dignity that such solemn service requires. In 1981, Labour leader Michael Foot was famously accused of wearing a “donkey jacket” — although it later emerged the Queen Mother had complimented it as “a smart, sensible coat for a day like this.”

The nation’s right-leaning press has been unrelenting in its desire to focus on bizarre criticism: in 2015 Jeremy Corbyn was accused of not bowing sufficiently at the Cenotaph, and elsewhere said to be wearing his tie incorrectly.

Most scurrilously, the Sun and Mail online claimed he had been seen to disrespectfully “dance a jig” on his way to the ceremony, complete with pictorial “evidence.” Both were forced to retract the story when it emerged the photographer had callously cropped out his companion George Durack, a 92-year-old veteran of the second world war to whom he had merely gestured in conversation.

The gutter press knows no boundaries in its efforts to portray the Labour leader as showing lack of respect for national occasions. Durack was understandably aggrieved over the smear. A long-term friend of the Labour leader, he holds a pivotal role in political history having been secretary of the Communication Workers Union branch that was first to nominate Corbyn as candidate to contest the Islington North constituency in 1983.

The previous MP Michael O’Halloran had faced criticism for lack of contributions in the Commons and protest from women opposed to his anti-abortion views. Ousted from Labour and the SDP, O’Halloran stood as an Independent Labour candidate in 1981 but lost to Corbyn, who has retained the seat since. Former councillor George recalled “I always remember taking the opportunity seeing Corbyn, having a chat with him and thinking ‘He’s a likely person for MP’.”

Prior to becoming catalyst for the election of his friend to Parliament, George worked in the postal service where he first became active in political campaigning and trade unionism, becoming well known and much loved for representing his community.

His outlook was shaped by his experience of war, for which he volunteered as a young man in 1942. He described the occasion as “a bit haphazard” and recalled absconding from training to visit his upset mother, which earned him spells in the army prison.
Eventually in 1944 he was deployed to the 7th Armoured Division, who were engaged in the battle of Normandy following D-Day, the allied invasion of France and liberation of Western Europe from the occupying forces of Nazi Germany.

For George, the reality of life and death as a footsoldier soon became starkly clear. “There were occasions we were so close to the enemy that we was on one side of the ditch and they was just over the other side. So, it was pretty horrendous. People being shot and wounded, and so forth. So my memories are pretty vivid around that particular area. An eighteen-year-old’s idea is so much different to as you got a bit older, towards the end of the war and your attitudes changed, your fear changed. It was quite astonishing.

“It’s a strange thing, that sometimes you only see the aftermath, and you could never say for certain that ‘it was I that killed him’. You could see the dead bodies when you were moving forward, especially in wooded areas. We as soldiers used to go alongside the tanks if we were going into a village, or into the woods. If it became dangerous, they would go forward a bit more, but we was protectors of the armoured unit moving forward in that area, so often we used to use our guns and I’ve seen all sorts.

“The worst thing was, we followed some half-tracks with flame throwers, they used to burn down the bushes and vegetation and so forth. Then to see the half burnt bodies is a shocking sight, not very pleasant for a young man. So really to come out in sane mind, I suppose it’s quite something. You never forget it — I’ll never forget some of the sights I’ve seen. It doesn’t really go completely out of your mind; but if you’re able to do that, it’s great.”

By April 1945, George’s unit reached the vicinity of a recently liberated concentration camp, where he encountered its victims and former guards. “We saw the people out of Belsen, yes I did come across several of them. My sergeant took me to an area where there was a lot of these people, terrible, skeletons, shocking. The other thing I do remember was we had to guard a small prison like area and that was with the Nazi Party women. The abuse they gave us was shocking, if they had the opportunity to get at you. They were really the nastiest, the vilest people. It gave us a bit of relief from the front line to guard these for a few days, about a week or so. One poked a pen or something and stabbed one of our soldiers in the sides of the cheek. They were bastards.”

On the subject of conscientious objectors, George recalled ambivalent feelings: “It didn’t make me as cross as I thought it should do. I was aware yes, but only very lightly, not giving me deep thought. That deep thought came later of course. Now at the end of my life — I’m 93 shortly — I’m now thinking to myself that war is a shocking thing, so we should do everything in our power to prevent it.”

Following these experiences, George became sceptical of Britain’s liberal interventionist foreign policy that saw the disastrous invasion of Iraq and a prolonged occupation of Afghanistan.

“When we realised what Blair was about, he was less like any Labour person I know — he should have joined the Tory Party really, he should have been Conservative, because of his attitude. I’ve got no time for Blair at all. We’ve got a good man there in Corbyn, a decent guy. There’s optimism.”

As chairman of Islington Pensioners’ Forum, George was involved in helping his fellow elderly who fell prey to austerity and public service cuts imposed by government. “I find it quite ludicrous really, that some of the older people are still voting Conservative, and God knows what for, I just don’t know, I really don’t understand them. A lot of them don’t want to talk politics, but politics is one hundred per cent of your life really.”