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!