Canadian Dick File has spent a week in Marlborough retracing the footsteps of his father, who was based in the town in the Second World War.

The Americans came en masse in preparation for D-Day in 1944 but four years earlier, there were Canadian soldiers stationed in and around Marlborough.

Mr File, from Armstrong in British Columbia, made a nostalgic trip last week to look up some of the places his father Audley, who was a non commissioned officer with the Rockey Mountain Ranger Reserves, had mentioned when stationed in the town almost 70 years ago.

Mr File made the pilgrimage because his father always intended to return but never did and died in 1992 at the age of 87.

Bookshop owner Mr File, 75, said: “My father talked very little about his experiences during the war but he did speak about the time he spent in Marlborough which he enjoyed.”

His father was a billeting officer whose job was to find places to stay for the 800 Canadian troops who were sent to Marlborough.

Mr File said: “My father was in a squadron of 24 that was sent to Marlborough after doing their training in Ontario.

“Initially they were infantry but they became part of an armoured division with tanks.”

“He was the squadron sergeant major, so where most of the other men were billeted in homes or even in stables he stayed with the officers in the Ailesbury Arms Hotel which he said was very elegant. He was here for the latter part of 1941 and almost the whole of 1942.”

In 1944 after being taken ill as the Canadian troops moved up through France and into Italy Audley File was invalided back to Vancouver where he saw out the rest of the war in the army HQ.

Mr File spent his week exploring the area. “I have walked around the town, discovered that the Ailesbury Arms is no longer a hotel and I have been out to Ogbourne Maizey where some of the Canadians were billeted in stables,” he said. “Everyone has been so friendly and helpful.”

Mr File would like to hear from anyone who can recall the Canadian troops being in the town. They can write care of the Gazette office at 42 Kingsbury Street in Marlborough or e-mail