Family and friends will remember Second World War veteran Graham Madeiros for his bravery and sense of humour in the face of adversity.Mr Madeiros recently died, aged 90.He was one of several soldiers featured in Defence Heritage, an exhibit that opened at the Bermuda National Museum last year honouring the Island’s war vets, fortifications and local military forces.His son Trevor yesterday recalled his father’s tales of battle and the strong emphasis he placed on family.“He was a very likeable man, not only from a family standpoint but also from a position of someone who had been through so much in his life and was still willing to help others if he could do so,” he said.“He had a great sense of humour. It’s not often that people who have been on active duty come back home and resume a normal life. As his family, it was a different aspect for us because we knew him as a father, but also a military hero.“For someone to go to battle with friends and people you have gotten to know through the army, and to only come back with only a few of them, it must have been hard for him but he always made the most of what he had and came back with fond memories.”Mr Madeiros was 18 when he was called up for service by the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps.A total of 180 BVRC volunteers served overseas in all the services in the Second World War 18 were killed in action.Mr Madeiros served with the BVRC in Bermuda for four years, then spent two-and-a-half years abroad as part of the Lincolnshire Regiment, before volunteering for overseas service in 1944.He decided to fight abroad because he was “fed up with doing guard duty in Bermuda”.Mr Madeiros shared his experiences with The Royal Gazette in 2001, insisting they “made a man” of him.He told how he and his company had travelled through recently-liberated France before going to fight in Holland, Belgium and Germany in the trenches.In the spring, they were moved to a different site in Holland and were told they needed to “take” a small village.The soldiers had to cross an open field to get to the woods about 500 yards away.“Once we got there, the place was literally covered with mines, that was one of the worst battles I can remember,” said Mr Madeiros.“One afternoon, they sent in a whole battalion of men; a battalion is 900 men.“We had an awful lot of casualties. Out of 900 men, we had 265 casualties not all were killed, some were badly wounded.”“It was in no-man’s land, this place was. We would go out at night 14-strong; we were doing that for several nights and I think the Germans knew it.“This particular night, four o’clock in the morning, November 11, 1944, they ambushed us, they attacked us.”He said he survived the attack but was shaken by it.“When I got back, I couldn’t talk to Intelligence for two days because I was so shook up. I don’t smoke, but my sergeant major gave me a tin with 50 cigarettes.“Well, I laid in my trench and I had my tin hat as a pillow, and I chain-smoked those 50 cigarettes,” he said. “Out of the 14, only two of us survived. It was a miracle...”Mr Madeiros is survived by grandchildren, his sons Trevor, Peter and Chris, brother Sutherland Madeiros and sister Marjorie Bartlett.He was predeceased by his wife Muriel and his son Scott.See tributes on http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theroyalgazette/obituary.aspx?n=graham-ernest-madeiros&pid=160373350#fbLoggedOut