My wife’s uncle, who died about five years ago, was an interesting character. He retired as a colonel but never used his rank in civvie street as far as I’m aware. He was universally known as “Tinker”.
Tinker married my father in law’s sister. I only met him a couple of times, during my RAF days and although I once had quite a long conversation with him whilst out walking, he was more interested in talking about what I was doing than what he had done. I didn’t press him, although I knew he’d spent time in the SAS during WW2, probably because what questions I did ask were met with fairly short answers. I’d been told by his son that he’d once parachuted into enemy territory in Italy and landed in a tree, suspended over a stream. I was watching a TV documentary not long back and a similar story was mentioned, which prompted me to search again for his history.
I discovered that he’d been interviewed at some length by someone from the Imperial War Museum. Intriguing to listen to.
Here’s a link:
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80018711