大象传媒

MY WARTIME CORNISH ADVENTURE

BY

REG. GRIFFIN

The year was 1940 I was then thirteen years of age. Living in Finchly north London, , and Great Britain was in the grip of a terrible war. The bombing had become very intense, particuly London, the air raids in paticular were quite scary and frightening indeed.

My family consisted of our Mother, Florence, farther, three bothers, Bob, Ron, Len, and four sisters, Florrie, Marge, Jean, and Shirley, a large family you might think but most families were a lot larger than they are today,
Brother Ron sadly did not survive the war, he served with the merchant navy, and died of his wounds on the 10th of june 1944 aged 20yrs. My very best friend!
he was about 18 months older than myself he died of his wounds after being picked up out of the sea, he was brought into Southhamton were he is now burid in the war graevs cemetry

What with the bombing, the blitz was making living in London very unsafe in 1940, consequently some of the family were split up and went to stay with our aunt鈥檚 and uncles, mostly living in the vicinty of Finchly North London,

My Dad who was serving in the Army at this time had just returned from France with his regiment the Pioneer Corps. He had achieved the rank of Sergeant and the army in their wisdom had sent him along with his company to a little hamlet called Malpas, on the river Fal near Truro in Cornwall.

His platoon consisted of over thirty men and their task each day was to service and repair runways of the Airfields in Cornwall. Being a construction company they were kept very busy.

As the weeks went by the bombing had taken a terrible toll on London and everyday life was getting harder and harder for my Mum to manage, as it was for most Mum鈥檚 with their large families and no men folk around them for support.

Then one day Mum received a letter from Dad to say that we could leave London and go to Malpas in Cornwall and that he would find us somewhere for us to stay and be nearer to him.

Wow, Cornwall, how exciting it sounded for us, I had never been outside London let alone to somewhere like Cornwall. The very thought of not having to get out of bed in the middle of the night half asleep and go into the garden into that damp old shelter, when the air raid warning was sounded. It was not very pleasant down in that shelter dug into the ground, but we made it as comfortable as possible, we had a kettle , a light and lot鈥檚 of blankets, and all those little things to make life easier. It was the same for every family that had a shelter but very difficult for those without shelters, but you just had to put up with it. I just could not wait to get the ok from Dad to tell us to come on down.

At long last the big day arrived and with the minimum of baggage we made our way to Paddington Station and boarded the train to Penzance. As you can imagine I was very excited and I said to myself this is going to be my CORNISH ADVENTURE.

The train took over five hours to get there, of course it was a steam train and there was plenty of smoke and steam, especially going through the tunnels and if you did not pull the windows up you would get all the smoke and dirt coming into the carriage to everyone鈥檚 annoyance, but we managed to have a laugh about it. The train itself was mostly full of service personnel soldiers, sailors and airmen going to there posting or returning from leave.

At long last we pulled into Truro Station to be met and greeted by my Dad and after such a long time it was a very happy day. I well remember how smart and resplendent he looked in his uniform and it made me very proud of him.

Dad had a taxi waiting for us to take us to our new home it was in the hamlet of Malpas. I say hamlet because it only had one road into Malpas and there was no church, just a few houses along the banks of the river Fal, a pub and a little store cum Post Office that was owned by a Mr. Tabb who was an ex R.S.M (Regimental Sergeant Major) and he still retained his rank in the Territorial Army. He was also a great friend of my father, it was agreed that he would and could accommodate us all just on a temporary basis until more substantial housing could be found, for this this we were very grateful.

On a warm and sunny day as it was on our arrival here you could not have been in a more tranquil place, and for a young lad of thirteen to appreciate such a lovely place I knew that it was a very special place for me to be after London and the terrible blitz.

Only 4 of us travelled to Cornwall, our mum, Len, Shirley, and myself,
I was the only member of the family that was of school age, and a school had to be found for me the only one available was in Truro next to the Cathedral. This did not appeal to me very much as I had not had much schooling in my young life and I was lacking in the art of learning. The reason for this was because of my Father occupation and we moved house rather a lot and it was rather disruptive to my schooling , but then, education was not considerd a priority at that time.

So school it had to be, the journey along the riverbank was a mile in length to Truro, I soon found a friend to accompany me his name was Jack he was from a local family and was a bit of a lad. His family were a typical Cornish family just real old country folk. He was a very good pal to me and he taught me all about the river and it鈥檚 do鈥檚 and don鈥檛s including fishing and boating it was a whole new way of life to me, this kid, from London.

In our spare time Jack and I would spend it on the river we would row around just looking at the big ships that were moored, also the plesure boats that were there most of the owners were away in the forces or on active service and we would keep an eye on them. The river Fal is one of the deepest rivers in the world and was used by the Port Authorities of Falmouth to bring the big ships up and shelter them from enemy bombing of the port.

Our country at that time could not afford to lose any more ships because quite a lot of shipping had been lost in the Atlantic Ocean due to the German U boats. Jack and I volunteered to do fire watching on one of the ships over the weekend鈥檚, as there was no crew aboard.
They were looked after by the local men and a fire warden, so it was all a bit of an adventure for us two young lads.

We would have the run of the of the boats all too ourselves, our job was to keep a lookout for any incendiary bombs during the air raids that would start a fire and not to get involved but just sound the alarm and the men would come over and deal with them. I am glad to say that we never had to set off the alarm. Although we were on our own quite often we would get a visit from one of the other men just to make sure that we were both ok, it did get a bit scary at times, we also received a small payment for doing this.

There was one particular ship that we liked very much it was owned by the Shell Oil Company and we were told that it had come across from Germany at the outbreak of the war. We liked this one because it was modern and had very good cabins a bit to posh for two young scaly-wags like us, we were given a cabin to stay in overnight, but we were curios and interested in the other cabins just to see what they were like and after much searching we at last found some keys.

So we set to work to see what key fitted what door, only about three cabins were opened and they were all single cabins and very well appointed. Then our next task was to have a look inside the door that was facing us and after going through most of the bunch of keys we got lucky and bingo! open it did.

Wow! It was the saloon, and all the woodwork was dark and highly polished, the seating was all black leather and there were lots of brass fittings. Now having satisfied our curiosity we had better lock the cabin up and put the keys back and that is what we did. It certainly made our stay on fire watch that weekend much more interesting and it was back to school on the Monday.

I suppose the worst part of school was actually getting there, it was a good mile to walk but with Jack alongside me I soon got used to the walk. Each morning Mrs. Tabb would give me a very large Cornish pastie that needed to be held in both hands and it consisted of meat and potato and turnip covered in pastry and that was supposed to last me all day, there was not to much meat in the pastie though because of the food rationing. Each family was only allowed a small amount each week and that is if the butcher had any meat.

The traditionanal Cornish pastie was always renowned for it鈥檚 satisfying qualities (when hungry) but some how as I recall I always seemed to arrive at school with only half of my pastie left.?

Some days Jack and I would be rather lucky and manage to get a lift from one of the Army lorries leaving Malpas it was strictly against the Army鈥檚 regulations, the lorries were of the American type, all left hand drive and we thought that was great! And it was, that is until one morning sitting up there with the driver I happened to see through the side mirror that a motorcycle coming alongside, it was my Dad, Sergeant R.H.Griffin and he told the driver to pull over.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 going on then鈥�? He said to the driver and looking across at us to at the same time, he then turned back to the driver and said.

鈥淒o you not know Army regulations and do you know that unauthorised persons are not allowed to travel on W.D (war department) vehicles?鈥�

鈥淵es sergeant鈥� was his reply, poor bloke.!

鈥淎nd you two out , now!!鈥�.

鈥淵es Dad鈥� was my reply.

鈥淚 will see you later鈥�. He said looking at the driver.

鈥淵es sergeant鈥� said the driver again.

But I still got a telling off when he came home that evening.

As time went on I got to know most of the Army boys by name, they were very good friends to me and some of the drivers still stopped and gave us a lift, we would just keep our eye out and lay down in the back of the lorry. I found out later that Dad had a good idea it was still going on, I believe my Mum had something to do with that as she always said it was to far to walk, thanks Mum!! Eventually Jack and I managed to get hold of a couple of old bikes and that made getting to and from school that much easier and we had a lot of fun.

Time was going on apace by now and I was coming up to my 14th birthday and Christmas. Christmas in Malpas was a very quiet affair really and not much going on, quite a lot of the soldiers got home leave and the rest just made their own entertainment and joining in with the rest of the community and that took place in the local pub, not that there was a lot of beer. I was told by my Dad that it was not very strong beer either and he reckoned that it was watered down to make it go around a bit further never the less there was always a good old sing song going on and the piano going full blast.

That Christmas was very hard for my Mum because the rest of the family was back in London. We were all worried about them and how they were all coping with the blitz. We heard the news on the radio that the R.A.F had got the better of the German air force and that they had shot down 144 of their aircraft in one day over the English Channel and London.

That was very good news for everybody鈥檚 morale and made it all seem a lot better and they all had a good night in the pub.
Mum and Dad went over to the pub with Mr. and Mrs. Tabb and a good time was enjoyed by all. Although the war was not going so well for us in the Far East and the western desert, but that particular piece of news made us all feel good. With Christmas over and my 14th birthday that was the end of my school days in Cornwall.

There was not much work for a lad of 14yrs in that part of Malpas or Truro but something had to be found for me to do, my Dad did not wont me doing nothing at all so Mr. Tabb said.

鈥淒on鈥檛 worry about that Bob I鈥檒l keep him busy he can help me in the store doing odd jobs around here and I鈥檒l teach him to row over and ferry people back and forth and deliver telegrams, and errands in general. He will get paid for doing it not a lot mind! but a bit pocket money鈥�.

That was how it was to be, no more school but never the less I was not allowed to just hang around doing nothing , Mr. Tabb found me plenty of jobs to do in and around the store.

By this time we had already moved out from Mr. Tabb鈥檚 small cottage, Dad managed to get us a house just on the banks of the river with much more room for all and much bigger than our little council house in London and that made living for Mum that bit easier, never the less she was still missing the rest of the family in London, but it was safer here.

The house that we acquired was one of six semi detached that had been taken over by the army for the troops to be housed in, they were just up above the road looking out straight over the river and you could see all that was going on, it was a super view. It had electric light instead of those oil lamps that we had at last got used to in Mr. Tabb鈥檚 little cottage

I could also see across to Jacks house and see whenever he was rowing over to this side of the river, it was just ideal.

True to his word Mr. Tabb gave me plenty to do like delivering groceries out to people and also papers and the occasional letters also a telegram from time to time, but what I liked doing most of all was as he had promised me that I could, was to use his boat to ferry people back and forth from the other side of the river, Porth-kea, and Old-kea area, it was done on a pre-arranged basis normally, but if anyone wanted picking up they would have to ring a very large hand bell that was located in a box on the other bank., I cannot remember how much we charged them but it would have been something small, about a 鈥渢anner鈥� that鈥檚 six old pence and I would also get a couple of pence by way of a tip, not that there was anywhere to spend it except in Mr. Tabb鈥檚 shop so he got it all back in the end didn鈥檛 he.

Then one mid morning a Saturday I think it was, the bell was ringing and looking over to the other bank I could see a man standing with his dog, Mr. Tabb was there with me and he said, 鈥� you go over and pick him up lad and I think you will be quite surprised. So it was a nice spring like sort of day very calm on the water as it always was on the Fal, when I got to the other bank the man said something like 鈥済ood morning lad and thanks for picking me up鈥�.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 OK鈥�, said I. Then he said.

鈥淚 haven鈥檛 seen you before young man鈥�.

鈥淣o you have not 鈥� said I .

鈥淲here do you come then,鈥�? he asked as we made our way back across to Malpas with his Labrador dog sitting by his side.

鈥淚 have come down from London鈥�, sir, I said, 鈥渕y Dad is with the Army here, I explained I have left school and I am helping Mr. Tabb.

鈥淥h I see鈥�, he said on reaching the quayside, there was no landing stage as such just a few steps up the side of the sea wall.

鈥淏y the way鈥� he said, 鈥� you will be here to take me back won鈥檛 you as I am just going to visit a few friends and the pub鈥�. Then up the steps he went.

Now where had I seen that face before? As I was tie-ing the boat up I noticed Mr. Tabb was having a chat to this gentleman, they were having a good old laugh together and looking across at me at the same time and I thought what could have been so amusing. The man went off into the pub and Mr. Tabb came over to me and said. 鈥� Do you know who that gentleman is?鈥�

鈥淲ell I think that I鈥檝e seen him before but I can鈥檛 remember,鈥� said I.

鈥淵ou were right boy you have seen him before, only the other week when you went into Truro to the pictures, that man was none other than Mr. Robert Newton the film star 鈥渉e said.

Then it clicked in my memory, I remembered only to well how much Jack and I had enjoyed the film, it was one of them pirate type films, and he always had the role of the long John silver type with peg leg an all, great fun!!

Two hours or so later when he came for the boat to take him back over with a very red face, as he always had anyway, and a bit wobbley there I was eagerly waiting to take him, and as I remember he rewarded me very well. I did that little job for him many times in the following weeks.

By this time Mother was becoming very worried about the well being of the rest of the family left up in London, after a lot of thought and discussion with my Dad it was decided that we would soon have to return home. Also the fact that the Army would also be on the moving on to a new location.
It was very hard for me the very thought of leaving this wonderful place, the very place that had given me so much pleasure and taught me so much , was very hard to bear, to have to say goodbye to my frend Jack, was this to be the end of my CORNISH AVVENTURE,? but I told myself that one day, I would return, and return I did, It was to be 40 years on.

I went through my life very much the same as any other young man of my age and I found short as it was, but there was a war on and we just had to get on with it,it a bit hard to ujust to town life after that wonderfull time in Cornwall.

I was sent to work in a factory that was making parts for aircraft in Finchley north London, Yes! sent, one did'nt have a choice, I worked on the night shift most of the time, and I rather enjoyed that, the night air raids were a bit scary
at times but it was the same for all,and we just got used to it.

Then at the end 1944 I started my service whith the army, and was sent into my
Dads old regiment ,THE QUEENS ROYAL REGIMENT. which pleased him so much, and after my training had finished and like many other young men of my age was sent overseas and visiting places like FRANCE, AUSTRIA, ITALY, EGYPT and PALISTINE.
What has this got to do with Cornwall you might arsk? well I must say that after having seen all of thease different places, none sticks in my memory as strongly as that short time spent in MALPAS.

It was now in the year 1983 that whilst on holiday, and staying in Fowey, in Conwall, the very first time that Lois, my wife, and I had traveled away together without our 4 daughters, we decided to take a drive to TRURO, and natruly on to Malpas, and on entering Truro and seeing that sign for Malpas, filled me whith great pleasure, Wow! Im back! I said to Lois, and I found that very exciting.

Traverling down that road to Malpas filled me with great excitement, what would I see? would it have changed much?, but after 40yrs it must have, I told myself, the drive down that road didn鈥檛 seem to be much different, nothing to see on the lefthand side, but glimpses of the river through the trees on the right, and then Malpas came into veiw. And there it was! just as I remembered it all those years ago, there was those little cottages and store still there, but looking a little brighter with a new coat of white paint, and of corse the pub, a few changes
there olso, but still doing business.

After a spot of lunch and a chat to a couple of local folk about Malpas, they were unable to to tell much as they had not been in the area that long, so Lois and I
ventured over to that little store.
''Good morning''! said the lady of the shop,
''What can I do for you''? she asked,
'' well said I''
My wife and I are down on holiday and just thought that we would like to have a look at where I used to live and work,
"You lived and worked!! ere'' was her reply,
''Yes! that鈥檚 right! said I,
''Oh! no! I don鈥檛 think so she said, Ive been ere'' for many a long year and I don鈥檛 recall enyone like you by ere'' she replyed in her Cornish tongue,
No! you wouldn鈥檛 I said, it was a rather long time ago,
Well!'' how long ago was that then, she asked?''
''Just over 4oyrs, I said'',
''Goodness me mind!''
''I lived here with Mr and Mrs Tabb,'' I said'' I was just aboy,
''Well I never ! if you wait by there,''she obviously knew the name Tabb'' Ill fetch my husband,she said''
then she disapeared into the back of the shop,
Good morning Sir''! said the store keeper, my wife tell's me that you say that you did once live by ere, ''yes that's right, but that was back in 1940 I replied'' with Mr Tabb,'' well, well'' I never did! he replied.
Sorry for taking your time I said, but I could'nt let it go by without looking in,
''That's alright Sir.'' We then proceeded to go into a long discusion about the past, he said that he knew Mr Tabb but at that particular time when Iwas there he himself was away in the army, and did I think it had changed much?,
''No! not realy, just that some more houses about 12, built on the hillside most with balconys for a good veiw over the river, and that things in general looked brighter, Oh! and the pub had a new name,the veiw looking out over , and down the river looked just as it always did, perfect!.
We said our goodbye's, I thanked him very much, '' before you go he said,'' I got a nice little picture of Malpas'' that you mite like to have, taken from a boat,
aproaching Malpas.

This had just been one of those flying visits, didn't get to find out about my pal Jack, how was he,? were was he? has he had a good life,? who knows, maybe another time, ehea?

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