大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer for CSVReading , Jim Grufferty,on behalf of John and Phyllis Chant of Salisbury and has been added to the site with their permission.

JOINING UP

My first memories are of the day before I joined up. Mum said to me that I should go up and see my uncle Lewis who owned the pub in Orcheston about four miles from where I lived. I went up there to say goodbye and arrived at about 4.30 pm to find the pub shut or so they should have been. I went round the back door and when I got inside who should be there but about five locals and the village policeman with a big pint of ale and his helmet laid to one side. I said to my uncle I thought you would be shut and he said to me 鈥淣orman I do more business when I鈥檓 shut than when I鈥檓 open鈥�. I thought to myself this must be how it will be from now on.

The very following day I joined up at Devizes in Wiltshire. I was there for three weeks and on the next Sunday they said to us that as you look like soldiers now you can have the afternoon off and go into Devizes. I rang my fianc茅e Phyllis now my wife and she said she would get the 2 pm bus from Salisbury and we could spend the afternoon together. At three o鈥檆lock no sign of the bus. It arrived about ten past three. There was a policeman and a private detective waiting there. Phyllis got off the bus and the policeman went straight to her. Eventually after lots of talking she said the bus was stopped along the way and everybody had to produce their identity cards. Unfortunately she had changed handbags and had left the card behind. She was taken off the bus to the police station, all her details were taken down and checked out with the police in Salisbury to prove she was who she claimed to be, and they let her go. She was a criminal really

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