THE remarkable bitter-sweet life story of a courageous but ill-fated Worcester man can now be fully revealed, 60 years on, thanks to a touching letter from a local "exile" living in Cheltenham.

Today, I pay belated homage to Albert Edward Williams, who was brought up in Worcester, the son of a popular local lady licensee.

Albert lied about his age to enlist into the Army at only 16, during the First World War and miraculously escaped death, though losing both legs.

Between the wars, the spirited Albert pursued an active life, moving around on artificial limbs, driving a car with special hand controls, and enjoying short but successful careers in engineering and as a publican.

However, fate was desperately unkind to this survivor of the Great War and, tragically, he was killed in Worcester's only fatal air raid of the Second World War.

I've been learning all about Albert from his son Peter, who lives in St Anne's Road, Cheltenham.

Peter wrote saying he was much moved by a Memory Lane feature recording the 60th anniversary this year, of the German bombing of the Meco factory in Bromyard Road, Worcester.

"I have recently been given a copy of that Memory Lane page from the Evening News," says Peter. "My father, Albert Edward Williams was one of the seven men killed at the Meco Works that day - October 3, 1940.

"At the time it happened, I was a 15-year-old student in class at the Worcester Technical School at the Victoria Institute. We all heard the bombs exploding and, a minute or so later, also heard the sound of a low-flying plane.

"It went over to the offices at the rear of the Shirehall and, looking through the classroom windows, we all saw the black crosses on the plane's fuselage. Obviously, I did not know then that the bomber had just killed my father."

Sadly, Albert Edward Williams was only 41.

Back in 1915, he had enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps at only 16, claiming he was 18. After a few months active service, his superiors realised he was an excellent shot and transferred him to the Rifle Brigade.

It was while on sniping duties at Passchendaele, Ypres, that Albert dashed from shell-hole to shell-hole and was unfortunately caught by the blast of a shell landing beside him. One of his legs was blown-off, the other badly injured, and he had to lie in agony for eight hours until after dark when he could be rescued by comrades.

"It's remarkable he survived," says his son Peter. "My father sometimes recalled how he heard the surgeon tell a nurse - 'give him anything he wants - he won't be here in the morning.'

"However, dad said he was determined to be there in the morning, and so it was that he survived, though he lost both legs and later had artificial limbs fitted."

Albert became a draughtsman and worked at the next drawing board to the great George Dowty at the Gloster Aircraft Company.

"In fact, when George Dowty left GAC, he invited my father to join in the business he was setting up, but dad didn't think there was any future in aircraft components. Alas, how wrong he was!"

George Dowty went on to become a multi-millionaire, head of a international industrial empire and a Knight of the Realm.

Albert, instead, decided to become a pub landlord in Leicestershire and remained as such until his wife developed a serious illness and had to make regular hospital visits to Birmingham. The couple eventually moved there when war broke out, Albert feared the Germans would "flatten Birmingham" so he and his wife took a house in Fernhill Heath, and he found a job as foreman in charge of the Progress Department at the Meco, Worcester.

Alas, all these twists of fate were to end in Albert's death on October 3, 1940.

Even then, however, he was not out of the news. A Midland MP had to ask a question in the House of Commons on behalf of his grieving family:

"Is the Minister of Pensions aware that the widow of a man, who lost both his legs in the last war and who was killed in an air-raid, has been refused the funeral grant of £7.10s and the temporary allowance of £2.10s for 10 weeks, and has been granted only a 22s.6d weekly pension for herself but nothing for her son, aged 15, now attending a technical school?"

As far as Peter Williams can remember, the question in the Commons did not have a positive result for his mother.

Shortly after his father's death, Peter and his mother moved to Cheltenham, to live with his grandmother, Mrs Lucy Jane Tredwell. She had been popular licensee in Worcester for many years - first at the Raven in Droitwich Road and then at the New Greyhound in New Street, until her retirement.

"This pub has now gone and is the delivery site of Marks & Spencer."

Peter Williams points out that the bombs that fell on the Meco factory were not the first to be dropped on Worcester.

"A few weeks before, a lone enemy raider flew over our house in Fernhill Heath and dropped a cluster of small bombs which must have landed in the Perdiswell, or Blackpole area, but I never heard of any damage they caused."

At Mr Williams' request, I have sent him copies of the Memory Lane feature for his son and daughter.

"I am sure they will find the story of their grandad very interesting," he said.

I also reproduce again the photograph of the memorial service held at the Meco Works for the seven victims of the bombing raid.

I stated previously that the service was held not long after the tragedy in October 1940 but I have since been told it took place quite some time later. Peter Williams and his mother attended that memorial service.

As a reminder, 60 people were also injured in the Meco bombing, some of them seriously.