Horace

In his own words

10^th August 1922 – 11^th November 2011

 

Both my parents were of country stock, my father was born in Seavington and my mother born in Crewkerne, both in Somerset.  I never knew my grandparents. I was born on the 10th August 1922; I was the 10th of eleven children.

1 - Our House

 

Ours was a street of back-to-back houses and most comprised of what we called a Front Room, a Back Bedroom, a Kitchen and a Scullery that lead off it. A door from the Scullery led into a "Yard" covered with flagstones.

 Our only toilet was situated outside in the Yard. Inside the house, we had gas mantles, but there was no lighting in the outside toilet. At night I would have to take a brother or sister with me to hold the candle and frighten away the rats and mice. But mostly we used a bucket in the bedroom (we were too poor for a po) and emptied the bucket it in daylight. Toilet paper was scraps of old newspapers.

 At this time my eldest brother, Tom, and my sister Queenie, were courting. But all 10 children lived at home.

The Front Room

 Queenie (20), Vi (17) and Dora (15), shared a double bed in the down stairs front room. In this room, apart from the 3 girl's double bed, there was a wooden Chimer with a shelf full of knick-knacks, an oval wooden table, which folded down on two hinges into a perpendicular position.

There was also a black ebony piano, which belonged to my sister Queenie. I'm not sure how she came to have this, but it was made by a firm called Russell & Russell of Clapham Road, S.W.9.

And no doubt was bought "on the weekly".

Also in this room was a gramophone with a large Horn. I can never remember it being played or ever seeing any of the records, but there was a supply of needles which came in a small tin with a hinged lid about 1 1/4" x 3/4".

 In front of the window always stood the table with an aspidistra on it. I remember the window so well with its starched lace curtains hanging from a huge wooden rail. Inside the window you could lift the sill, which was on hinges, and pull up from its inside two large solid wooden blinds.

Also in the front room was an open wrought-iron fire grate. It was never used but was regularly polished with black grate polish. This polish came in a small block, which we used to spit on, dab a brush in and then keep polishing the grate.

 In front of the grate was an old silk fire screen with a wooden frame. Above the grate was a mantle shelf and this was full of knick-knacks. On the shelf it's self was a sort of damask cloth which hung down from the shelf. We called it, "The Mantle Cloth". On the wall above the mantle shelf on the chimney wall were twin gas brackets. I can never remember them being lit. They were so delicate that even a strong draught would damage them. The mantles were always being broken. These mantles were the same as can be seen today in very penny. In my youth, a penny was a small fortune. 2d would but a large loaf of bread. 1d was the only coin, which would go into the gas meter.

 Beneath the gas meter shelf, there were always lots of coats hanging from nails driven into the wall. As children, we used to hide under these coats, and if there were an overcoat hanging there, we couldn't be seen. 

Down stairs back room

The back room downstairs was my parent's bedroom room. The furniture consisted of a huge cast iron double bed, and an enormous chest of draws. I believe that the lowest draw was used as a cot. I can't remember if my youngest sister, Vera, was the last to use it or not.  One other item of furniture in this bedroom was the cot.

My sister Vera was a delicate child and spent quite a lot of time in and out of Hospital. (When I was about 7 or 8, I remember going to visit her in hospital with my mother at Carlshalton Beeches.)  When she was at home, Vera often sleepwalked, so she invariably slept in a cot in my parent’s bedroom. This cot was also of cast iron and had metal bars in the sides. I well remember when the cot was finally dismounted and we used the sides as a ladder to climb on. 

I think all my brothers and sisters at some time slept in this cot. I can recall when my brother Eddy slept in it, for one morning he was found with blood pouring from his hand. It appears he was suffering from warts on his hand and the previous night caustic soda was put on them to burn them off but the solution was either too strong or too much was put on. It was said that he nearly bled to death. He had a terrible scarred hand for the rest of his life and had difficulty in clenching his fist.  I slept in the cot until I was about 7 or 8 and then shared a bed with my brothers. 

In this bedroom were gas mantles; they were protected by glass shades and were awkward to light with matches. One had to light the gas by turning it on with one hand and with the other hand apply the lighted match to the mantle, being careful not to puncture it. A Taper would have been ideal but I suppose they were more expensive than matches were. 

Also in the room was a wooden half-moon shaped washstand with a marble top. On the washstand stood a large bowl that seemed to me an even larger water jug. 

The Passage

From my parent’s bedroom was a passage, which led to the kitchen, passing a cupboard under the stairs on the way. There were never any carpets anywhere in the house, but we did have some homemade rugs down in the passage. The mats were made from old coats cut up into small strips and sown together. Some of my brothers worked on the railway, and were issued with free uniforms about every 2 years, I think. If the old uniform was too rough to be sold, it would be cut up and sown together. This was the reason for the abundant supply of rugs! 

The Cupboard.

This cupboard was actually called the coal cupboard but all I can remember being in there was a heap of coal dust about 2 feet below the level of the passage floor. The place was covered with huge spider's webs hanging from the walls and beneath the stair treads. My brothers said there were also rats and mice in there, so if we were asked to get some coal for the fire, we would stand banging on the door for 5 minutes to frighten them off! We would then lie on the passage floor, lean down and use our hand to scrape up some of the dust. The other hand would be used to cling on to the side of the door for dear life. My brothers would often threaten to lock us in the cupboard and sometimes did. They would only let us out after we had been screaming the house down. To this day, I have a fear of spiders and heights. 

The Kitchen.

 At the end of the passage was the kitchen door. It was in no way a kitchen, as we know it today. It was the general living room where everyone ate and sat either listening to the wireless or playing games on the kitchen table. The room itself was about 12' x 8'.

 On opening the kitchen door, about 5' on the left was another door, which led to the yard. On the other side of the kitchen was a wooden screen, which reached to the top of the ceiling. This was full of nails on which hung every one's jackets. When you think that many of my brothers worked on the railway and were issued with free uniforms made from heavy coarse material, l then that screen was taking quite a bit of weight. On reflection, I don't know how it stood up. 

Behind this screen was a kitchen table with an assortment of handmade stools around it. They must have been well made because I can never remember any being replaced. There was a kitchen window here, which looked into the yard, and under this window was the largest of the stools, which could sit about four people. Working our way around the room, on another wall was a door, which led to the washhouse, as we called it. (Some families called it the scullery). There was no hot water tap – only cold. We had no bathroom; it was in this room that everyone washed. There was no privacy. On the same side as this door were more chairs with never two the same. Some had backs on them but most were broken off.  In the corner was a copper with a little fire underneath it.

On the wall, from a 6-inch nail, was a huge photo or print depicting the charge of the Light Brigade. I think my mother had a tremendous sense of humour. To see the picture there and reflect on the size of our family it should have been captioned the charge of the hungry brigade! 

Turning onto the next wall, the focal point of the room was the kitchen range. On one side of the range was a shelf on which the wireless set, together with an accumulator. There was of course no electricity in the house and the accumulator worked the wireless. The accumulator was quite a heavy thing, slightly smaller than today’s car battery, but which we had to carry every week to a wireless shop where they would exchange it for one that had been charged. The cost on exchanging it was, I think, 2d. 

The kitchen stove itself was made of solid iron that had to be cleaned every week by rubbing it down with emery paper.  The oven was not used for cooking, but for drying g out boots when it had been raining or keeping meals hot for any of my brothers who were on shift work or were coming home late from an evening out. 

The fire grate was quite large and in it burnt anything that could be burnt. If it couldn't be burnt, it wasn't for the want of trying. Some of the things we burnt would be chopped up fish boxes from the local fish stall at the top of the street. The wood should have been dried out and would then have burnt quite readily, but we put it on the fire whilst it was wet and the smoke and the smell were terrible. Inevitably the kitchen window had to be left open to let the smoke and smell out, so the warmth from the fire was practically nothing. 

We were too poor to buy coke for the fire. But we used to hire a wheelbarrow for 2d and then tout around the neighbours offering to collect coke for them and charge them extra per bag and keep the profit. 

Another thing we burnt was bark, which we used to collect from a local wood-yard. Before school and sometimes after school we would take a sack to the wood-yard and fill it up with bark, which had been chipped of the trees. Again, this stuff would smoke something awful because I suppose it was damp. We would try to remedy this by trying to gather decent wood, which was used to separate the planks after the trees, had been sliced. But if we were caught stealing it we would be booted out of the wood-yard and would lose whatever we had gathered in the sack. 

Another favourite fuel would be what we called tarry logs. These were blocks of woods about the size of today's brick and looked like railway sleepers chopped up. Many roads were laid with these blocks. After they were laid, they would be covered with tarmac and a sprinkling of grit and a road roller would roll it down. When there was any road works going on, word would spread that tarry logs could be had, and again, we would take a sack or an old pram and try to get some. When the road works were on there would always be a night watchman on duty. He would have his own night watchman's hut with a brazier going permanently boiling a Dixie can for hot water for the tea during the night. He kept his brazier going with coke and the odd tarry log. We would ask for a few and when given permission would fill up our sacks with about 1/2 a dozen logs, but at the same time scoop up with our hands some of the coke, which would be in a pile near his hut. One had to be careful yet quick to pinch the coke. When we put the tar logs on the fire the tar would melt and pour out bellows of thick black smelly smoke.  Stones would get hot, spit, and fly all over the place. 

For another source of fuel, we would take our homemade four-wheel cart and go to Vauxhall embankment – next to what is now London fire brigade headquarters. A little road / slipway ran under the road to the river. There was a sand bank there and were would gather as much driftwood as we could. 

The walls in every room were painted with distemper, a weak solution of today’s emulsion paint. There was no wallpaper - that was too expensive. Distemper was much cheaper. 

There were no pictures on the walls because bugs would get underneath the backing paper. There seemed to be a permanent plague of bugs and it was a nightly job to go around the walls killing them with the stump of a candle. The smell of dead bugs was terrible. We had to light a camphor candle to neutralise the smell! 

Upstairs front Bedroom

The upstairs front bedroom was fairly large, because it extended over the passage. On the landing outside was a gas stove and a sink, which was used by the family who rented the front Room. These lodgers consisted of the parents and two sons, aged about 8 & 10. The younger was older than me, so my memory goes back to about 1927. 

Upstairs back bedroom and Ante Room

The back bedroom consisted of one large double bed, which was used by my 4 older brothers who “toped and tailed”. An archway led from the back bedroom into a very small, what we called an “ante room”. It was here that my brothers, Eddy & Reg and me “topped and tailed”. 

2- A Visit to Uncle

The only article of importance in the Front Room cum Bedroom was a black ebony walking stick, which usually hung from the wooden curtain rail. The walking stick had a silver ring beneath the handle and as such had great value. It would regularly be taken to the Pawn Shop and six pence (6d) advanced against it. The stick might go in on a Monday and then redeemed on the Friday. 

In our street, there was no shame about using the Pawnbroker, who was also called "Uncle". In fact, anyone going down to "Uncles" would knock on neighbour’s doors to see if they wanted anything taken down. 

When an item was taken to the Pawnbroker, a ticket showing the details of the object and the cash advanced, would be given to you. If you didn't redeem the item after three months you lost all claim to it and the pawnbroker had the right to sell it. A person was often too poor to redeem what they had pawned, and it was the custom to sell the pawn ticket to anyone who could afford to buy it. 

It was usual for the Pawnbroker to advance about 1/4 or 1/5 of the value of the article. A neighbour would purchase a pair of bed-sheets, say for 7/6d from a tallyman and promise to pay him 6d a week for 20 weeks. These goods could then be "popped" (i.e. pawned) for 2/6d or 3/-. The situation then was that the original neighbour, say, owed the Tally man 7/6d which would be repaid over 20 weeks, but he had in ready cash, say 1/6d advanced by the pawn-broker, plus, say 2/6d for the sale of the ticket. This total cash of 4/- was a substantial amount of money when the average working man earned only about 10/- per week. Owing the Tally Man was nothing to worry about, he would be offered 3d per week and feel grateful he was getting anything at all. With such large families and also having perhaps hefty children, the Tally Man knew when to use bullying tactics and when discretion was the best policy! 

When articles were redeemed from "Uncles", there was a fee to pay. This could be perhaps a shilling in the pound per week. So if you "Popped" something for 2/- and didn't redeem it for 2 weeks, there would be a charge to pay of 2/2d. 

My older sisters were embarrassed about visiting "Uncle". They would walk up and down outside, and when the coast was clear, slip into one of the cubicles inside the shop. In the shop itself, there was very little privacy, you could lean forward over the counter and peep round the screen, which divided the cubicles. 

3 - Births and deaths

In my youth, the washstand stood, bowl and jug in my parents’ room were only ornamental, but they would have been used for confinements, which always took place at home. These confinements were always attended by a “mid-wife” who lived further down the street. I don't suppose she was qualified - but she had plenty of practical experience! It seems that the street produced its own mid-wives.

There was always one person in the street that would do the washing and laying out of the dead. The blinds in the front room would only be used if there was a funeral down the street. At such an event, all the neighbours would share in the mourning and pull their blinds as a mark of respect.

4 - School

 I went to the South Lambeth Rd School. All my brothers and sisters had gone to the same school at some time. The school motto was “play up and play the game”. Pupils were aged from 5 years to 14 years. The juniors would have classrooms on the ground floor and the seniors would be on the next floor.

School times were 9am – 12noon, 1.30 – 4pm. The school day always started with assembly in the main hall. We would all be seated in class order, there would be prayers said by the headmaster followed by a hymn, then it was off to our classroom in an orderly file. We always had the same classroom for every lesson except for woodwork and science. We always sat at the same desk and there was always two pupils at each desk. My best friend was Walter Dye, who lived opposite us in Dawlish Street.

 Morning lessons always started with learning all the important dates of British History. My Teacher’s name was Mr. Bailey. It was him that gave me a love of history. I was also fond of woodwork (I made book a case once). I also liked the art class.

I was ink monitor for my class, which meant that I was responsible for topping up the inkwells on the desks: a great honour and responsibility. 

During the morning we all had a free 1/3 size bottle of milk, which we drank with a straw. On cold days, the teacher let us put the milk on top of the radiators to warm it up. 

I always went home for dinner because we couldn’t afford school dinners. 

The school took us swimming once a week at the Nine Elms Baths. This was the only time I got my body wet all over and I was able to have a wash. Not only did we not have a bathroom, we had no bath! 

We had to wear a school uniform but my dad was too poor to buy the whole outfit, so I only had the cap. My dad would write a note for me to take to school to ask for any unwanted clothes. The teacher would read the note aloud to the class. We were so poor that sometimes I went to school wearing sister’s stockings rolled down, a jersey (no shirt) and short trousers. (In those days, you only had long trousers when you left school). My worst memory of school was when I got into a fight with another kid who was teasing me about my poor clothes. I punched him, but he ducked and I hit my fist against a brick wall. But I was the one who got punished: I got canned in front of the whole class. 

At the age of eleven, I passed the Matriculation Test and gained a place at the Grammar School. But because we were so poor, my dad couldn’t afford the uniform. Anyway, it would have meant that I would have had to stay on at school until I was 16. Dad couldn’t afford to let me stay on at school that long. I needed to get a job as soon as possible and bring in some money. 

5 - Food

We used to go shopping down the Lambeth Walk, or get a take-away from the Pie-mash shop. The shop also sold things like jellied eels. We would take our own bowls to collect a meat pie with mashed potato smothered in “liquor”; a green parsley / jellied eel juice sauce. Or we would go to the fish-n-chip shop and get whatever we could for a penny, and always asking for the free crackling. (The left over batter) 

There was a place that made cakes in Wandsworth Rd called the Vauxhall Cake Supply. On a Saturday evening you could take a bag and get 3d of stale cakes that had remained unsold: donut or cheese cakes (flakey pastry with strings of coconut on top – I’d eat up the loose coconut as soon as I was out of the shop.)

There was a street market at the top of Dawlish Street. Toward the end of the day, we would go round and pick up anything that had fallen on the floor; fruit, vegetables or anything that the costermongers had thrown away. 

My brother Tom got a job in fruit shop in Drury lane. I had to walk over on a Saturday afternoon and collect bags of fruit that we would passed out through the side door without anyone seeing. He always knew what was in the bags and would clip me round the ear if he noticed that even if a grape was missing. 

My brother, Reg, worked in Coppin’s, grocery stop, in Lambeth walk. He was also good for letting you have tuppence worth of cracked eggs 

Vi, my sister, worked in a baker’s in Larkhall lane and she would let you shoplift stale cakes. We would walk up and down the street until Vi gave the glad eye and then we would go in and take the bag that she had packed up for us and rush out. One day the manageress came out and nearly caught me! I had to make out that I’d forgotten my money and leave, without letting on that Vi was my sister. 

My sister Dora worked at a shop in Victoria. She was also very good at turning a blind eye to my shoplifting. 

We used toasting forks to make toast over the fire.

6 - Celebrations

At Christmas, we were usually given a present of an orange and some nuts. If we were lucky, we might get a box of lead soldier or a torch. Christmas dinner was an Edge Bone of Beef. We would take it down to the local bakery early Christmas morning to be cooked and then collect it lunch time. Lots of people did that in those days. 

As a special treat, Christmas dinner was followed by a rice pudding. There was no special Christmas tea or Christmas cake in the evening. Although, occasionally, as a very special treat, we might have a pomegranate. 

We never celebrated birthdays. There were no cards, cakes nor presents. Birthdays weren’t considered anything special.

7 - Church and Sunday school

I have fond memories of attending church with my mother. This was at what was known as the, Ragged School but its proper name was the Shaftsbury mission. (Founded by Lord Raglan.)  One advantage of attending the Sunday school was the annual outing to Hampton court. This would consist of a special tram from Nine Elms corner, where the church was. When we arrived at Hampton court there would be marquees erected and it was in these that we would eat the food, which was provided, by the church. I well remember one visit, as with others, we were playing around and my brother Eddy disturbed a wasp's nest. He was stung many times and one of the stings was on his private parts. Up until the time we left school, we wore short trousers, which were in the wasps favour. 

8 – Games

We always played out in the street. The house was too crowded and we had no garden. We played with hoops and tops, or tie a rope around the lamppost and make into a swing.  

Hopscotch – draw with chalk squares 1 – 8, throw a bit of “liquor” (a piece of broken crockery) then you scooped the liquor with your foot onto the square. 

We played marbles on the road gutter. We would swap marbles for an alley (a big glass marble). We would also play with wooden hoops, which we bowled along with a stick. Another toy would be a spinning top, which after you got it spinning you, could keep it going with the aid of a whip. You could make a whip with a short stick with a piece of string knotted to one end. Another toy would be a homemade scooter. The scooter would be made with a platform made with a plank of wood about 4 inches by 24 inches. On the platform at one end would be fixed a block of wood and two hooks would be inserted. The steering would consist of a further plank of wood about 4 inches by 24, 2 hooks would be screwed into it and would then fit into the block on the platform and a large perhaps 6” nail would go through all 4 hooks on both pieces of wood. We would cut out a slot where the wheel went. These wheels were ball bearings, which we would get from a scrap yard. 

Two of my sister worked in the button factory – we had more buttons in our house then they did in the factory. We would play with the buttons making them up into sets of same colour and size. On the table we had an “American cloth” This had a pattern of different colour squares. We used to roll buttons on it to get in within the squares. 

We also played with co-op checks – little tin tokens of various denominations from the Co-Op. At the end of the year, you could change your tokens into money. At an early age I very clever with arithmetic. 

Conkers: We soaked them in vinegar to make them hard. 

On a Saturday, we went round houses collecting waste paper and then sell it to a waste paper merchant – by weight. People kept their old newspapers in cupboards under the stairs and you had to go in and rummage around. If there was anything else there you fancied you took that as well along with the newspapers! 

There were lots of horse and carts around (especially at Nine Elms goods station) and we would go round, collect horse manure, and sell it to people for their gardens 

At Clapham Common, we’d go fishing for tadpoles – with old cart/pram. We used boxes to make a tent / a sack to catch the tadpoles 

9 - Entertainment

Saturday morning pictures cost 2d and the cinema. One of us would pay and then open the emergency exit by the toilets to let the others in. On the way, we would get 1/2d of biscuit crumbs to take to the pictures. The crumbs came in a cone made on blue paper. 

10 - Jobs / work

I left school at 13. My first job was at a butcher’s, part time on Saturdays. I used to make the sausages. I “Resigned” from this job because I took home wooden boxes, which the meat came in. We could burn the boxes on the fire. One day the manager discovered a joint of pork in the box I was carrying! 

My first full time job when left school was when I joined a firm of cabinetmakers in Brixton. I didn’t know that cabinetmakers made coffins until I arrived. When I found out I ran back home and never went back – they still owe me a morning’s money! 

Aged 15, I became a messenger boy with the Royal Society of medicine, 1 Wimpole Street.

I was on the telephone switchboard. A little “eye” would fall down when a call came in and I’d plug a cable in and answer the call. . Wimpole and Harley Street also had hospitals and I would deliver medical books to local doctors, using a boys’ bike with a basket on the front. I used to wear a peaked cap as a uniform. At the same time, I put my name down for a job for the railway company – Southern Railway at waterloo. 

I then worked in an electrical store next to Peter Jones in Oxford Street. I was lucky to get this job – it was considered a job for life so there was always a queue of people wanting to get in. I used to issue stores to the restaurant in the building. One day I took a large joint of ham home and left the job before anyone noticed it was missing. 

I started work at Waterloo Station as a messenger boy in the general manager’s office. (Age 16). I would come home for lunch to Vauxhall, which was only one station from Waterloo. I went home to tell my mum how I got on – but the train didn’t stop at Vauxhall or Clapham Junction nor at Earlsfield. After that, I had no idea where the train was going. I pulled the emergency communication’s cord. The train stopped. The guard came along and asked, “Who pulled the cord?”  Told him who I was – and how I was almost Assistant General Manager. The guard said the train was going to stop at next station, Wimbledon, anyway. In my ignorance, I didn’t know where Wimbledon was. I had never been that far from home before. 

When the war broke out all the General Manager’s office/staff were evacuated to Deepdene, a large country house in Dorking. I traveled to Dorking every day. (Now the furthest I’d ever travelled from home)  From there I graduated to become a booking clerk on the Waterloo and City Railway at the City end of the line. I was aged 17.  It was then I bought my first suit – from Dunns. 

Then got a job at the main Waterloo station – Waterloo East. One day an old lady asked for a ticket to Mayshill.  I asked what was wrong with her! 

I then became a relief clerk, covering for sickness and holidays for any station in the southern region.  I would get instructions form the divisional manager at Woking as to where I was to report. In covering for sickness, it appeared that the clerks were only sick when they were on early shifts! It meant that at whatever station I was sent to, I had to be there by 6am!  I did this for a number for years. My fiancé would come down and accompany me to the various stations to keep me company – Wandsworth Town, Barnes, Chessington, etc. 

11 - War

I was called up 16^th July 1942 and was requested to report to Dicksons holiday camp at Paignton Devon for 12 weeks Basic Training. Being a holiday camp, I thought we would be in chalets, but when I arrived, I turned a corner and saw lines of tents! Half way through the training, we were shifted to Plymouth: The Raglan Barracks. They were terrible! They’d been condemned in Queen Victoria’s time! The Americans later took over at Paignton. 

The War office decided that I would make a good clerk, so they sent me to Saltburn in Yorkshire to do a clerical course. This involved keeping up the war manuals, keeping the army orders, rules and regulations up to date. I was then allocated to the Royal Army Ordinance Corps and was sent to a Command Ordinance Depot just outside Stirling to learn all about army logistics, stores, etc.

I became friendly with one of the female natives when I was billeted in the Station Hotel in Stirling. I would take her Ice-skating at Falkirk or visit Bannockburn. 

I was then ordered to Greenock where I boarded a troop ship. We were told that we were going to Southampton. Three weeks later, in November 1942, we found ourselves in Algiers!  It was a terrible journey – I was seasick all the way.  

We landed in Algiers with no opposition from the locals. We set up bivouacs for the night in the tropical gardens. It rained the whole time – all we had to keep us dry were our ground sheets. After 2/3 days, we went to a place called Bone on the borders of Tunisia. We went in the dead of night by boat. It was frightening. We were battened down in the hold. There was no way of escape if anything happened. 

I spent 18months there, off-loading ships for supplies for the 1^st army. I had to organize ammunition and store dumps. The stores were off-loaded from ships and then loaded onto local Arab horse and carts – the only transport available. Some of the horses could hardly stand let alone pull a cart of ammunition boxes! 

In the 18 months, I never saw a loaf of bread unless scrounged it form a boat being unloaded from the dock. We lived on army biscuits and watermelons (you couldn’t drink the water there). We suffered air raids. There were only 16 in our unit (including nine Privates} – I was a corporal by then. 

In 1944, I was sent to Sicily. Then it was back to Bone. We then made the train journey back to Algiers – took over a week in a cattle train. We arrived in Liverpool and then on to a camp in Cheshire. We were re-kitted out and came down to the south of England. 

I was then sent to France to Arrogance, Cherbourg in the American sector. We were off-loading vehicles and stores for the French Army – some of these vehicles were Norton combination motor bikes – very old. We gave the Frogs all the old junk! We ran raffles for a weekend in Paris – but had to shift out before my number came up, so never got there, 

We went through Holland into Germany and to Hamburg where we were billeted in a house: a ground floor flat on the An-Der-Alster. I was there a year and a half. The city was in ruins. We were under strict “No Fraternization”. (in 1949 my wife found the letters from a pretty Frauline I knew) 

Then I went to Lubbeck in Poland on the Russian Border. From there we used to come home on leave. Being the orderly room clerk, I was liberal with the travel warrants and came home quite frequently, taking then train to the Hook of Holland and the boat to Harwich. Whilst in Germany I acquired three piano accordions which I brought home with me - my dad sold them. On one leave in 1947 on the way home, I was taken ill and spent 7 – 10 days in St. Thomas’ hospital, London. From there I took my discharge at Richmond Park. My Demob suit included a Trilby Hat. 

12 – Post War

After the War, I went back to the Railways as a booking clerk at Waterloo station. I had to work every Sunday. However, my new wife didn’t like being left alone on Sundays and Holiday times so I left and went to work for the London Electricity Board – Lavender Hill. Next door to the Police Station. I was quiet often called in to take part in Police line-ups. I worked in accounts department, but would often work overtime in the “shoe room” – taking money from people paying their accounts. 

From there I went to work for the American Express. 6 The Haymarket. We were living at Milbank. I caught an 88 bus and was home in 5 minutes. Sometimes I was sent to their branch off in Southampton Docks. American Express would put me up in some dingy hotel at the docks. I once took my on Colin with me. 

To earn extra money I also worked at washing cars in the evening at the now infamous Dolphin Court in Pimlico. (At one point more than 100 MPs and Lords rented flats in the square. Soviet spy John Vassall was living in the square when he was arrested for treason. Winston Churchill's daughter, Sarah, was evicted from the square for hurling gin bottles out of her window.)  

From there we removed to Slough because the Turner Buildings were being refurbished. I continued to travel up to London every day to the Hay Market. 

I then worked on the production line at Mars. (As much chocolate as you could eat).  From there I became Office Manager at Benfix on the Slough Trading Estate.  I continued working there even when we moved to Bracknell. Eventually I changed jobs and went to work as a Cost Accountant at Rowney’s Bracknell. 

To supplement my income I took a part-time job delivering a cakes and bread around the Windsor area. I would also have to collected stake bread and cakes.  I would take home stake cakes, until the boss found out and I “resigned”. How did I know he was selling the stale cakes to farmers as pig feed? 

We then moved to Ashford, Middx and I went to work by London airport as the Group Accountant for the Road Haulage Association. To earn extra money I worked evenings and weekends as mini cab driver using my own car 

We then moved to Tintagel where we ran a Guest House. 

When we moved to Delabol, I “Rested” on Social Security. 

When we lived in Wadebridge, I worked at St, Merryn Meats as an accountant. 

Then when we lived in Bodmin, I worked as an Accountant for Fitzgerald’s, until my retirement.