CHAPTER ONE

   

EARLY BEGINNINGS  

  

To put oneself in the centre of the picture, as it were, is exactly what is done when an autobiography is attempted.  It sets one up to go on a big ego trip and for that reason alone, because it is about oneself, I feel that at this point I should apologise for this. But of course you realise that very point is necessary to give you the story as it presents to you, and hopefully you are consequently prepared to accept it as it's presented. 

I first thought to write my story from the outside as the other fellow, but on contemplating this realised that it would not be possible to give you the reader, all the facts as they occurred, as closely as possible to my memories. 

So if it has to be an ego trip, then so be it! 

When I first began to take notice of the world around me, I must have been about eight years old, for by that time I had learned to read.  I was living time in Chatham, Kent with my parents.  My father was serving in the Royal Marines and was stationed at Chatham.  On a particular morning in 1936, I had been sent to purchase a Sunday newspaper from the local paper shop and with some difficulty managed to decipher the billboards outside of the shop.  The one that sticks in my mind was the one that announced the death of the late King George V. 

Soon after this event, my parents decided to separate. My sister Mavis and I moved from Chatham with my mother, to Sheerness also in Kent, to be near her mother and father, my grandparents.  It was a very poor community in those days and most of the dwellings that existed were fairly old and ramshackle buildings. At that time the country was still slowly recovering from the depression years of the early thirties. 

My grandparents, although very fine people, were very poor and had little means with which to live their lives. I remember vividly the little one bedroom weatherboard house, which they rented, and the meager furnishings that surrounded them.  I remember hoping that I would not end my life in such impoverished conditions.  You must realise that these conditions for lots of people existed at this time in England, and at that time the British Empire was in its hey-day.  So although England was one of the richest countries in the world its population did not share its wealth, for things were still very bleak for those in the poorer communities of the country. 

I remember my grandfather well.  In spite of his discomforts, and they were many as he suffered from asthma and heart trouble. He was in himself of very cheerful countenance and well educated. He was able to converse with anyone and was always prepared to extend his knowledge to help those around him.  I used to chop firewood for him and my grandmother, for they had an open fire with a cast iron oven built into it on which they did their cooking. Whenever there was anything available to cook, that is.  We played card games and dominoes a lot of the time and during our conversations I learnt much from my grandfather. 

This phase of my young life was taken up with running errands after school, for which I was sometimes rewarded with a halfpenny for my services. Friday night after school, I used to fetch the week's groceries for a neighbour for which I was rewarded with two pence which was almost a small fortune for me.  My mother supported us, my sister and I, on an income of fifteen shillings a week of which seven shillings and sixpence had to be put aside for our rent. 

On the third of September, nineteen thirty-nine at eleven o'clock in the morning, England declared war on Germany and the Second World War began.  By this time I was eleven years old and remember that Sunday morning well. Soon after declaration of war, the powers that be sounded the alarm throughout the country by testing the air raid sirens in all areas.  My sister, who had been on the beach with friends and was in the process of dressing after swimming, ran completely naked from the beach, some half a mile away, to get home to us. She was only nine years old at the time, but it has always been a source of amusement to us to reflect on that moment. 

From the moment of declaration of war the news did not improve much. Very soon a British battleship was sunk in Stops Flow in the Naval Base by a German submarine that had somehow slipped in and out without detection.  Germany continued to push on through Poland and France and our troops were on the retreat steadily, until the final reality that was Dunkirk. Thousands of British troops were taken off the beachhead by anything that could float and brought back safely to England.  Some of the boats that brought the survivors of Dunkirk back came into Sheerness. They were then transported by rail to London for eventual disbursement to their newly set up units or hospitals. 

I remember standing at the railings watching the unhappy scene at the railway station. Women were cheerfully going among the soldiers with trays of sandwiches and hot tea while the soldiers waited for the trains that would transport them away. I remember thinking how desperate things had become for England.  Some unknown soldier amongst the crowd must have felt and sensed the feelings of the crowd, for he called out ‘don't worry everyone, we’ll be back’, and that showed a spark of the spirit that prevailed.  For this indeed was a sad time for the free world. 

At this time my future was being considered by the family, and by fate as well. Not only was my way of life to be considered, but at the same time I also got to know the young girl who would one day become my wife. 

I was in fact only nine years old when I first met Betty. We played together and enjoyed each other's company at a very early age. The summers’ just preceding the war years are the times to which I refer. 

However it was decided at this time that a life in the Royal Navy would be a suitable trail on which to embark.  Application was sought for my enrolment to the Royal Hospital School at Holbrook. The sons of former serving members of the Royal Marines and Royal Navy were admitted there for educating and training for eventual entry into the Royal Navy. 

Shortly after the fall of Dunkirk it was decided to evacuate children under a certain age away from areas considered under danger from bomb attack. They were placed in areas considered safer in other parts of the country.  Consequently my sister, myself, Betty and her sister Jacqueline, who was the same age as my sister, were all evacuated to South Wales. Mavis and Jacqueline were billeted together with two old maids in Penryceiber near Mountain Ach.  Betty went to Mr & Mrs Lucas at Gilfach near Bargoed in the Rhyney Valley.  My place of abode was with Mr & Mrs Lewis of Pontlottyn, also in the Rhyney Valley.