Memories of the 20th Century 1946 to 1947


I married Joan in April 1947. We had both served in the R A F, I was demobed in August 1946, so we kept in touch by writing to each other every day. One weekend we met in Windsor, I stayed in a hotel and Joan stayed at the Y.M.C.A No sleeping together in those days, but we were very happy just being together.

Joan had no support from her parents in making the arrangements for the Wedding so my mother and sister helped us. The Wedding dress and Bridesmaids dresses were loaned to us by my cousin and I wore my demob suit as you had to have coupons to buy almost everything.
As Joan had served in the R.A.F for nearly 4 years she had very little civilian clothes so my family saved their coupons so she could buy some clothes for the honeymoon.

I brought Joan’s engagement ring at Bravingtons in Kensington high street. A solitaire diamond which she always wanted from a little girl. I also brought the wedding ring at the same time. I didn’t have a ring, as men did not wear rings in those days.

We got married on a Wednesday at 2 30pm as all shops had to close by law midweek and the guests could not take a Saturday off. On the eve of our Wedding Joan stayed at my parent’s house and I slept at the two rooms that we rented to live after the Wedding.

We were married at a Methodist church, my Father took Joan and the Bridesmaids in his car and I walked to the church with my Brother who was Best Man. We had our reception at a café on the seafront for about 25 people, and left for our Honeymoon on the 6pm Bus to Torquay but had to spend the night at Exeter as the bus did not go any further that night so we continued our journey next day.

On our return from Torquay Joan had to return to the R.A.F station to show her Marriage Certificate to get demobed from the R.A.F. It took about a month before she came home but she did not complain but did her duty.

We went on to have 60 very happy years together. It was the best thing I ever did.

S.H.S

My Hobby Sweetpeas and Roses

This is me ,holding my Prize Black Hamburg Grapes with Ben and Lorna looking on .1986.
When I was working in the garden lots of people would stop and ask me how i got the roses looking so good , they would stop and chat about the wonderful scent ,also ask the names of the different varieties.


Holly and Eve with the Sweet Peas when they were about 13years old

Super Star

Joans favorite flowers were Roses and Sweetpeas and whenever we had a garden I would make a Rose garden for her, with a border for the Sweetpeas. In 1980 when we moved from the Seafront and bought a house with a garden I set about planting Roses and paving to make a Rose Garden. To start I had to cut down a row of Macracarpra trees that was about 30 ft high which was a big job also an Apple tree which was about 60 years old. After several years I planted over 150 Rose Bushes and climbers. Some were old timers such as Super Star, Blessings, and Piccadilly ,and others modern varieties like Buxom Beauty,and Velvet Fragrance.
I also had climbers such as Morning Jewel ,and Albertine.and Handel. Roses need a lot of work if you want a good show. I would spray them about every 14 days and weed the border frequently. One reason my wife liked Roses and Sweet Peas was they made a good cut flower. When anyone came to visit, they would take home a bunch of flowers.

1967 SEAFRONT HOTEL .

We moved to the Hotel in October 1967 ,our living space was in the basement ,it was a big change from living in a house with garden , but we soon got used to it .We loved the view of the seafront from the upstairs windows .We were very exited at going into a new business . We set about renovating the Hotel ,with new beds ,carpets and wallpaper , we finished at Easter 68. We started to take up the old carpets at the top of the house and carry them down four flights of stairs , when my Son came to help ,he said why not throw the carpets out the window in to the basement ,and take them on to the beach on Guy Fawkes night,and burn them , which we did , it was all good fun .In those days there were Bonfires all along the beach , children would spend several days taking things on to the beach to make a bonfire. I used to get up at 5 oc in the morning when i was fresh after a good nights sleep,and start wallpapering ,some evenings i would start after dinner and work on untill midnight, my wife was a great help and encouraged me to keep going as we had a lot to do to be ready for Easter. We started the season with mainly Coach Parties ,and i would get up at 6.30 am and switch on all the electrical appliances ready for breakfast and make the tea to take to the bedrooms for Early morning . Tea. which was greatly appreciated by the guest,then it was on to cook the Breakfast. We had a Dumb Waiter which was operated by pulling on the rope to send the serving trays up to the first floor dinning room,my wife would be in the dinning room serving the breakfast and i would would be sending the tea and toast up in the Dumb waiter ,it was very much a team effort . then at 8 30 am i would go to work at my day job , i would get home from work at 60clock in time to send the dinners up and help with the washing up. The Guest had keys but we usually saw them in at night ,we did not Lock up at night till around midnight , i would sit in the window in the dinning room and l00k out over the bay waiting for every one to come in .The season ended toward the end of October ,when we would take a holiday the few years,in London. We stayed in a B/B just off the Edgeware Rd they did a great Breakfast. After a few years we got more adventurous and went to Kenya and Italy . In the 1970 s we went to Rome and Sorrento by train several times as my Daughter was scared of flying as we had a bad experience on our way back from Bancock We would leave Victoria Station at about 10/ 30 am and get to Rome at 1 pm the next day , we would spend about 4 nights in Rome and then go on to Sorrento,. One off our favourite places was Capri , we would get the ferry at about 9 30 am and spend most of the day there it is a very beautiful place .On the ferry they would cook ring doughtnuts which were delicious , a man would be playing a Accordian .It is very beautiful in that part of Italy especially the Amalfi Coast.
Once we were at Annacapri which high up on top of the Island and we asked a Taxi Driver to take us to catch the ferry back to Sorrento it is a very steep twisting road with sheer drops on one side and hairpin bends ,it was very scary as we had Tina and Jannet whith us . the driver drove at high speed and the girls were screaming with excitement and fear ,we were very relived to get to the ferry safely . On another holiday to Italy ,we stayed in Rome and went on the Appian way that was built 2000 years ago by the Romans to see the Catacombs where the Christians were buried in caves .We also saw the Tivoli gardens which had hundreds of waterfalls and fountains very impressive. We also had a holiday at about 1973 , in Kenya and stayed in Mombassa . we went on a excursion to the Rift Valley ,we stopped at a village where some men were dancing with there spears ,jumping up and down chanting when suddenly they surrounded our party ,for a moment they seamed very threating but it was all part of the dance but it did give us a fright . I have since seen a similar thing on TV .

1960// Memories of the 20 th Century.

In the spring of 1960 we moved to house on the main road ,so that we could do more B//B ,four bedrooms and a large garden .My youngest daughter was born at home in the summer of that year,i was not in favour of home birth but my wife was very sure everything would be alright .She went into labour all of a sudden and i had to ring urgently for the Midwife.When she arrived she made and the 2 children go down stairs ,at that time men were not allowed to be with the mother when in labour or at the Birth. The midwife was very kind but dominant person .It was a very scary time as we could hear all the noises upstairs ,it was all over within a hour or so and we where allowed to see her. Both Mother and Baby were well she was called Christina, i was very relived it was all over Babies born in hospital during the 1950 //60s ,the fathers were not allowed to be with their wife at birth and very often only allowed to see the baby from behind a glass screen ,most mothers would be kept in hospital for 5 to 8 days ,visiting hours were short and strictly kept to.

Memories of the 20 th Century //1960 .

A beautiful daughter has arrived 1953 .

In the spring of 1953 we were blessed with a beautiful daughter ,she was a easy baby always happy ,she had lovely fair curly fair hair ,which sadly she had straighten when she became a teenager .She was very fond of horse,s and when a teenager spent much of her time at the stables grooming them and cleaning out the stables ,and then she would walk with the learner riders up the hill ,for her hard work she would get a free ride , they were happy days
About the middle of the fifties we went camping .Once we went to Wales two other children with us ,in the middle of the night the tent blew down ,the tent poles just bent in two .We got the children together and went to the owners caravan to see if we could have a caravan for the night ,he was very kind and fixed us up for the night .Next morning we decided to stay in the caravan for the rest of the week . Another time we went to Goodrington in Devon and we had a thunderstorm it was so hot that the butter melted to oil ,we always took several children with us ,including our own.
Once we hired a motor launch on the Thames , we got the coach to Staines and walked to Wraysbury pushing the pushchair with Rosemary in it .When we arrived the owner seemed surprised that there was only 2 adults with 2 children aged about 8 and 3 years ,it seemed he had expected 4 adults ,he got rather nervous about me taking the boat out ,he said it was not quite ready and asked me if i had ever driven a 30 foot motor cruiser before ,i said no and he said to leave it till the morning ,as we were tired with the journey we got the children tea and explored the ship it was twin screw with fridge and full galley,twin cabins we were very impressed ,it was quite an adventure sleeping on the boat and cooking a meal .



Next morning he said he would take us to Heathrow for the children to see the planes which was something new for them,while he finished making the boat ready .Next morning he showed me how to drive the boat and we set off up to Bell lock ,we had no idea about going through the lock .The owner said he would follow along the tow path on his bike ,we were all very nervous. Rosemary was strapped in her pushchair so that she would not fall over board ,when we got to the lock we had to use the long pole to pull the boat to the quay side ,i then had to be very quick and jump on to the quay side and put the rope around the bollard,Michael helped me with the ropes ,it was great fun but a bit scary.
We went though 8 or 9 locks sometimes the water dropped about 20 feet ,or at other times rose up 20 ft ,it was all new to me but we got by, we went as far as Maidenhead on the way back we stopped at Eaton Wick and found that Eaton Regatta was on ,we stayed the night there and had a Firework display ,we went on to Runymede and back to Wraysbury.

I had my first car about 1958 it was a Ford Prefect it was one of the first new models to be made after the war , but it was a very basic design .My next car was a Rover 90 ,and about 1964 a Rover 110 as shown in the photo . They both had a six cylinder engines ,the 110 had a Maroon body with a Cream top they were nicked named The poor mans Rolls Royce . Both Rover,s had bench seats ,leather of course , so three could sit in front and back ,no seat belts in those days .They were very heavy cars ,built like a tank ,but very comfortable ,the drivers seat was like a armchair ,the trim was walnut and the carpets were thick and luxurious . In the 110 i had Leopard seat covers ,which was the latest cool thing ,not real leopard of course .

1949 our first born arrived .

About a year or so after we moved into the flat the landlord died and the new owner put both flats up for sale ,as we were sitting tenants we where offered it at a lower price than it would be with vacant possession , we were able to get a municipal mortgage at very favorable terms .Soon after the people in the other flat left and we were able to let it to a Naval Officer which meant their rent was paying the mortgage for us .

When we got engaged we went to see Joan's parents who worked as butler and cook in large country houses they were living in so we only stayed for the day,we,only saw them a few times. Joan took to my mother and father and went to the house every day and took the children there, she would help my mother with the house work and later on would work on my fathers smallholding collecting eggs etc she loved working there .My mother became her mother in almost every way ,they were very happy days . While I was overseas I had part of my pay paid into an account in the UK so I was able to furnish the ground floor flat ,you had to have coupons for almost every thing ,the back of the wardrobe was made of three ply from a tea chest,it lasted about 20 years but was full of woodworm so it had to go to the tip. We never complained we always felt that we were so lucky to have come back from the war and to have our own home and to have a beautiful son.



I went to work on my bike, i did not have a car until about 1958 , it was a Ford 10 horsepower , and a few years later a Rover 95 ,Joan did some waitressing in the evenings in the summer she liked meeting the people .in 1953, we had a lovely daughter ,this time she was born in a NHS maternity Hospital , My son was born in a nursing home no NHS then we had to pay ,the care was basic . We went on holiday when the children were small in June ,once on the bus , we stayed in a gypsy caravan. When we arrived in the late evening it was very foggy and could just make out the caravan, when we awoke in the morning we found we were very near the edge of the cliff , and we had the most beautiful view of the sea .We went everywhere by bus or walked with the pushchair , once we went on a ferry boat ,the boatman lifting the chair with the baby in it on to the boat,it was great fun . When we went to come home we did not have enough money for a taxi so we had to walk, we put the suitcases in the pushchair and carried the Baby it was good fun ,we were together.

Dec 1945-1947

I left Ceylon in December, we got a train then a ferry to Madras, where i stayed in transit for a month or more. We were there on Christmas day and some of the troops were getting annoyed and eager to get home. The next train took a week to arrive in Bombay, stopping sometimes in the day and sometimes all night. I was seated on a wooden slatted bench which became my bed in the evenings. If you took your boots off you ran the risk of them being stolen, food was brought on board when we stopped and the Indian locals would offer to shave you or sell jewelery and trinkets as souvenirs for loved ones back home. Whilst away post took around 6 months to receive and i was able to send home 2 food parcels, containing tea, a year. And of course there were no phone calls in those days. I stayed in a transit camp in Bombay for 3 or 4 weeks under canvas waiting for a ship home. When we finally got a ship we went through the Suez canal our large ship filled most of the canal with about 10ft to spare either side, from there we went through the Mediterranean this took quite some time approx 4-5 weeks but life on the ship was not to bad.

We disembarked from the ship at Southampton at night and took a train to a transit camp in the middle of the night, this time it was Nissan huts (a war time corrugated iron shelter) it was very cold. After a few days i was sent home on leave, we were some miles outside London and this was our first stop, where we stayed over night in a YMCA hostel near Big Ben. When the clock chimed the whole building shook, so we didn't get much sleep. I took the lunchtime train to my home town.

I was posted to North Weald in Essex, where i met my wife Joan. She was a cook and everyone liked her because she was always so happy although the work was very hard. It was the first time i had been in the airman's mess for about 4 years, it was very different. After a few weeks we started going out together, it was love at first sight. We met in the spring 1946 and married spring 1947. For our wedding day Joan borrowed her wedding dress from a cousin, everything was rationed or on coupons. We took a bus to T0rquay for a week where we had our honey moon. Joan then had to return to the RAF at North Weald to show her marriage certificate before she could get demobed. It took about another month before she came home.

We got a flat with 2 rooms a shared bathroom and a shared kitchen. There were other people there and someone was always using the kitchen so i got a very small electric stove which we put in the fireplace. we also had a gas ring in the bathroom on a rubber pipe, it looked very dangerous. We only used it once or twice. Joan did waitressing in a small hotel on the seafront, she also worked Christmas day and boxing day for lunch. We had very little money my wages were £3.50 (£3.10 shillings) a week, but we were very happy together.

In the autumn 1947 we had the offer of a flat it was such a luxury to have our own front door we paid £1.50 per week (£1.10 shillings). There was no main drainage in Preston so we had a cesspit when it became full we would have to pump it out on to the garden by turning a big wheel , if there was very heavy rain it some times came up in the bath .Man drainage came about the late 50s.

Before Joan died she left a short account of her life in the war , When i left school i went up to London in private service as a sivvy i just got put on a bus and that was that,no parents came with me .At 18 i joined the Air Force for 4 years ,i was pleased when i could go into the RAF , it was a wonderful time .People say fancy saying that , when there was a war on,but we used to all muck in together, have a laugh ,i used to cook for the boys and girls .During the war , first of all i was in London we used to hear the doodlebugs coming over,.We used to walk 3 miles to work early in the morning,starting at 5 am .Then i got moved down to Torquay , which was like a holiday they took over private houses for us to live in and there Americans down there as well, it was a lovely time ,everybody was different , all friendly . This account was given to a helper at Trimar Hospice where Joan spent many happy days ,the care she received there was amazing ,I shall always be grateful for there for the support we received .

Soon after we moved into the flat the landlord died and the new owner wanted to sell ,as sitting tenants we had the chance to buy at low price ,we where able to get a mortgage with the local council at a low rate .Soon after we bought it the people in the ground floor flat moved out so we were able to let it to Naval Officers ,which was good for us as they were paying the mortgage. At that time we did not have main sewer but a pit in the garden which had to be emptied twice a year , it was nearly 10 years before we got main drainage .From time to time I would have to go up the garden and turn the wheel to pump the sewage out ,on to the garden.

September 1939 photo of me and brother 1940 H G

My employer thought that supplies for making cakes would be rationed so i got the sack . With in two weeks i got a job in a bakery but this time it was delivering bread with a horse and cart in the morning and a van in the afternoon the horse was called Ginger and he was well trained but when he knew he was going home he wanted to run all the way back to the stable . One morning i was delivering bread when there was a air raid i could hear and see the planes diving and machine gunning each other the drill was to take the horse out of the shafts, if there was a air raid and try to find cover. I took the horse out of the shafts but he became very frightened and reared up and ran up the road with me after him his reigns were trailing on the road and he stepped on them which brought him down on his knees. I managed to get him up and calm him down and get him back in the shafts of the cart then walked him back to the stable where the stable man put some cream on his knees, they kept him in the stable for several days i was so worried about the horse i forgot about the Germans up above.
In the spring of 1941 i was moved to the bakery and worked nights 10 pm to 7 am we had to have all the windows closed which made it very hot we made hundreds of loaves a night.

In the summer of 1940 British and French troops were being driven in to the sea at Dunkirk and lots of small ships from Weymouth and the nearby coast went to bring them back to Portland and Weymouth . I remember seeing a long line of French soldiers marching along the coast road and then to Littlemoor road . They were all so exhausted they sat down in the road it early evening and my mother went out and gave them a drink , soon everyone came out of there house;s and helped . Later that evening we found that they had nowhere to go so we took them into the house and gave them a meal and a bed , lots of people in the road did the same ,they stayed for several days .My sister who was 16 years was the only one that could speak French ,she was quite a hit with them .I believe the R A F was the only thing that kept the Germans at bay , it was later called The Battle of Britain . Most people went about there daily work as usual ,although we often heard the Air Raid siren ,and could see the planes overhead . We had reports every day on the wireless of how many planes had been shot down on each side at night the blackout was enforced by Air Raid Wardens who patrolled the streets who would tell you if you were showing a light . It was a very tense time .

At about that time , my father started a Pig club .he got 4 men who lived near by to join together to keep pigs at the bottom of the garden ,they would buy 4 small ones and fatten them up and then have 2 killed to eat ,one had to be sold to the Ministry of food and the other was divided between them .My father liked the belly ,which the others did not care for ,they would put it in a brine tub and salt it down. M y father grew lots of vegetables and fruit .he also had Bees for Honey.My mother would put eggs in a brine tub to preserve them for the winter ,they also kept Rhode Island red chickens and Karki Campbells Ducks.

My brother was like my father side of the family,he was very good with animals and country skills.He had a small holding in Sutton Poyntz where he kept chickens and pigs which he would castrate with a sharp knife very skilfully. He also kept Turkeys in a out house at the back of the shop in the early sixty:s and brought them on for Christmas if any one went out in to the yard they would make that Goggle ==goggle sound .
A week or so before Christmas he would kill them by holding the bird upside down and putting a broom handle across his neck then stand on the broom handle and give a quick pull . Then there was the job of plucking the feathers while the bird was still warm,and then take out its innards . He had a regular clientele who had them every year. It was hard work with a lot of cleaning up to do after. Dave would hang the birds for a fortnight before he would gut them,and then hang them for another week or two.

Dave had a nanny goat that he would take for a walk around the village ,when Dave came home from work she would bleat for him to go to her, i think she though of him as her only friend..
Dave used to go horse riding regularly, i was no good at that kind of thing.


I joined the RAF on my 18 th birthday 1939 but was not called up till nearly 2 years later, so i joined the Home Guard in 1939 or as it was known then the Local Defense Volunteer Force... Shortly after joining we were issued with our rifles, i was given a Le Enfield and my brother a Turkish rifle. One night in the summer of 1940 we were called out and took up positions in a ditch by the side of a road leading in to town we had our rifles and stayed there all night but we were lucky nothing happened . We had many air raids that summer and could see the planes machine gunning each other and could hear the bombs being dropped several miles away.

We did guard duty one night a week 2hrs on 2hrs off, we slept on the floor of the waterworks fully clothed. I was paired with a older man, the local blacksmith ,we were protecting the waterworks , The photo of me and my brother was taken on a Sunday morning we are looking in a mirror hanging above the fire place I am holding a box camera while Dave is looking on. Sundays we did drill and rifle practice at Coombe Valley .
Although Tv has made fun of dads army it was taken very seriously. We kept our rifles at home so that we would be ready if needed. I was called up in september 41 and was stationed in Bournemouth in private houses one thing i remember was the landlady kept the teapot in the oven so it was always ready.

At the end of September i was posted to Cornwall ,in January 42 i was sent to Blackpool for posting overseas we did not know where we were going but was having inoculations for diseases, i was issued with a tropical kit including a pith helmet . We were living in boarding houses and spent about a month getting our equipment, On night we boarded a train and traveled all night and arrived at Liverpool where we boarded a liner called the Empress of Britain we stayed in Liverpool harbour for more than a week while they were forming up a convoy it turned out to be the biggest convoy ever to leave the UK, when we sailed out of Liverpool there was more than 200 hundred ships including the battleships Renown and Repulse both were sunk by the japanese a few weeks later there was more than 30 men to sleep in a cabin approx 20ft --15ft some in hammocks others on the floor or on the mess table ,we never took our clothes off only our boots it was very hot as we only had a air vent , i used to take my hammock on deck and sling it under the eves ,if it was raining we slept in the corridor but if the sergeant came round he would move us on . We were in the Atlantic for about 6 weeks before we saw land at Freetown we were not allowed ashore but stayed in harbour for several days , while they took on more stores. There was about 3000 troops on board, army, airforce and marines who maned the guns in the bow .

Our next port of call was Cape town ,we had crossed the equator and the sailors did a crossing of the line ceremony it was good fun ,when we were in the tropics we could see the flying fish along side the ship . On night we had to go on deck to our emergency stations and put our life jackets on as there was a German submarine out there. We could see the destroyers dashing up and down dropping depth charges it was very scary we stayed on deck most of the night , we arrived at Capetown about three weeks after leaving Freetown as we left the ship lots of people were at the quay side inviting us to their homes and gave us a meal. One family took us to a vineyard ,i also went up table mountain it was very beautiful.

We left without a convoy as we were told the ship could outrun a sub and arrived in Bombay a few weeks later ,there had been lots of roomers on the ship as to where we were going but nobody knew .One of my most vivid memories is when we were steaming at full speed across the Indian Ocean the Royal Marines beat the Retreat on the main deck and then played Sunset before lowering the flag . We were sent to a transit camp and stayed there for about 4 to 5 weeks under canvas ,we had most afternoons off so i was able to see a lot of Bombay ,we were put on a smaller ship and stayed in Bombay harbour for over a week , it was very hot in the ship we did not know where we were going .we arrived in Colombo in the middle of June 1942 and was sent to the racecourse were they had a make shift runway we slept in the stands which was mostly in the open air . One day when i was making tea i got burnt and was taken to sick bay ,we made the tea in a clothes wash boiler which had a lid on top ,while emptying the boiler the ladle full of tea went over my chest and lower body they put a saline bandage on and kept me in for a couple of days ,i was on light duties for several weeks .
After about six months i was sent further down the coast to a sea plane base where there was a lake for the planes to use.

I was sent to the officers mess ,the billet was made of coconut leaves woven together on a wooden frame bound together with string no windows just a opening ,the camp was in the middle of a coconut plantation some trees had been cut down so that to make a bridge to cross the swamp which had iguanas and water snakes they would run away if they saw us ,at night and early morning we would take a stick and wrap some cloth around it and dip it in cooking oil and light it to guide our way. I was at this station for about 18 months as any posting was stopped by the catering officer , i had many privileges such as not doing pay parade , we went swimming most days when off duty.


The next station i was sent was a jungle one it was 30 miles from Kandy which was Lord Mountbatten headquarters for Southeast Asia . I went to Kandy several times and saw the Temple of the Tooth which was very impressive ,we very seldom left camp as there was no transport available, i was at this station for about 14 months , the planes were long distance bombers going to Malaya some times in the air for over 20 hours which was a very long time in those days,they would leave at 5am and we would listen for them returning counting them in . The stoves we had were field ovens ,a row of bricks with a iron plate on top burning wood, it was basic equipment but we got used to it , we had Sinhalese working in the kitchen and mess ,they were a happy people and always addressed us as Master , they would make a cold lime drink for me at any time.
While i was at Sigaria, the jungle station, i contracted malaria which later turned to jaundice. I was in hospital for several weeks where fortunately i was treated with a new medical advance, antibiotics. I have been lucky enough to have no further ill effects. We had 2 boys spraying to control the mosquitoes.





After the war in Europe finished more men and equipment were sent out, after about a few weeks the Japanese surrendered as the Americans dropped the atom bomb. Within a couple of months i got posted home, although it took more than 3 months to get home!

1921 to 1931

I was born in Dorset in 1921 in a terraced house not far from the sea. The rent was 10 shillings a
week, which would be 50p in todays money. There was no central heating in those days, we uselessly washed in cold water , we had a outside loo ,no hand basins or bathroom and no carpets but lino. I went to a Church of England school at 5 years old. Boys were kept separate from the girls. My brother also went there as we were twins and we went everywhere together.
We went home for lunch – no packed lunches or school meals – and on our way home we would walk along the beach and my brother would look at the canoes which would have paintings of Red Indian head dress. He would go home and copy the paintings – he was very good at it . When I was 10 years old I had my appendix out. I was in hospital for about 3 weeks and only went to school in the mornings for several weeks.
At school we had reading writing arithmetic and Physical Education ,in the morning we had prayers ,and at end of school a evening prayer , Lighten our darkness we beech thee o Lord and bye thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night ,for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ amen ,and then the Blessing .This was at Primary school, if we did not pay attention in class we got the cane,we would have to hold our hand out and a cane about 1 meter long would come crashing down on the tip of your fingers ,if you moved your hand you would get a double one .

My Twin brother worked at my father shop ,he was a shoe repairer. From the age of 10years he would help out in the evenings and on Saturdays he would often be delivering shoes as the bell on St Marys church would chime Midnight ,as the customers would need them for Church on Sunday morning ,as people only wore there best clothes Sunday. On Saturdays shops were open till 9pm some like my Fathers even later. The town would be crowded with people ,the butchers would sell off any meat they had left cheaper after 9pm . In the 1930 -1950 s people worked much longer hours for very little money . As there was was no T V. we listened to the radio favorites were Henry Hall and his band and Tommy Handley" that man again," all harmless stuff compared to todays TV which is often violent and sleazy.
I went to Westham Secondary School at 11 years old, it was a boys school. I started work at the age of 11, working on a Saturday and in the evenings in a shoe shop. I had to dust the shelves and clean the windows and on a Friday and Saturday I would work until 9pm. I bought my first full sized bike on installments .We never went on holiday our treat at the end of the August holiday would be to go out to Upway Wishing well in a horse and trap driven by Sugarham Shorey .When we were very young my father had a motorbike and side car ,mother and me in the side car and my brother on the pillion seat ,it was very scary at times .In the summer on the beach opposite Marks and Spencer ,there was a stage were the Pirouette would give a singing and all dancing show ,they brought a box round for voluntary money, we would see the show many times for free.

I left school at 14 years old. It was half term and I started work on the Monday in a baker's shop. My day began at 5 o' clock in the morning; I had to ride my bike from Littlemoor Road to get there. My first job was to weigh out the flour for the rolls and bread. The morning goods were all made that day – doughnuts, custard tarts, scones, sausage rolls and pork pies. Most cakes were made after lunch when the oven was a little cooler. I worked a 48 hour week which was the usual working hour: half day on Saturday, Sunday off, one week's holiday a year .

Pork Pies were made every day,the pork was supplied by the local Pork butcher and made that morning . they would be in the shop by 10am.Today they are often several days old before they get to the shops.

1943

In 1943 I was in Ceylon - I am on the left