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This story has been added to the People's war website by Marie on behalf of Derek with his permission. Derek fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

I was fifteen when the war started in 1939. At that time we lived in Eltham in southeast London and I had just moved from St Alban's School to Colfes Grammar School in Lewisham. No sooner had I settled in at Colfe’s than the war came and we were evacuated as a school to Tunbridge Wells. We shared accommodation with Skinners School along St John’s Road
For the first four months I was billeted in Stephens Road, with family whose name I can’t remember. I wasn’t very happy, I do know. There were about three teen-age children, all of whom had left school and the evenings were spent around the table in the back living room, the parlour was only used on Sundays and didn’t have a fire in it so I had to do my homework amidst all the family. Early in ‘40 1 was moved to completely the other end of the scale. Nevill Park is the top end of Tunbridge Wells. I was with a Mrs Turner and her daughter Isobel. I had a room with its own bathroom and there were two Austrian maids indoors and a gardener, Woodhams, who lived in a cottage at the end of an acre of garden and also acted as chauffeur.
They had a huge American car which shared the garage with my bike. They were very good to me and I learned how the other half lived! My first grouse, wine, apart from Mother’s home made parsnip or elderberry, and a bit of gracious living. However it did come to an end when the Austrian maids were interned. At the same time my parents separated and Mother finally came down to Tunbridge Wells.
I must make mention of the summer of 1940. During the run up to Dunkirk we could regularly hear the crump of the big guns over in Belgium and France. We followed the action with our maps and little coloured flags. At the end of the Summer holidays we were encouraged to go farming and help with the fruit and hops. This must have gone on after term started because we were out in the orchards during the Battle of Britain and had a grandstand view. We were taken out to Goudhurst and farms around to help pick the hops particularly.
There was a great deal of rivalry between us from School and the Londoners who traditionally came down. We had rows allocated to us and had to pull the bines down from the poles and strip off the hops cleanly into the canvas bins. I came across the word ‘tally’ in a very practical sense. We were given a token for each bushel picked. What I can’t remember is whether we actually got paid. I think we must have been. The picking was interrupted by the aerial dogfights going on above us and we did have to take shelter at times. I can remember a Dornier bomber being shot down only a couple of fields away and the pilot coming down by parachute. We took it all in our stride and showed off our bits of shrapnel etc to our pals.
Also at this time I became part of the Civil Defence in Tunbridge Wells. Because I had a bike, I was enrolled as a messenger. When there was a raid on I had to report to the CD Headquarters and be prepared to take messages if and when the telephone system broke down. Presumably we were excused duty during school hours for I can’t remember having to dash out of lessons! Mind you we only had morning or afternoon school as we shared with Skinners.
I can honestly say I never had any problems with exams but maybe I should have been forced to work harder and given more advice in the Sixth Form. I can still see the faces of many of the teachers but have forgotten their names. In the Sixth form a Mr Bowden was my formmaster and we had him and Mr Crowther for Latin. 'Beaky’ Southern was English. I missed out here — I didn't find him a sympathetic character and he could have helped me more in what was not my strongest subject. I have to confess that the name of the French teacher also escapes me.
I kept up a correspondence with Senor del Rio after I had joined up, naturally in Spanish until the censors on board ship insisted that I wrote in English!
I had always been keen on languages and had thought of a career in the Consular or Diplomatic services before the war. But with another 6 or 7 years ahead of me, no really firm plans had ever been discussed Although University had always been envisaged, it was perfectly clear at that time that the war would still be on and there were no exemptions for Arts students.
Which brings me to stage two, my Service years. In September 1942 I returned for what I knew would only be a short time in the Third Year Sixth. All of us on the Arts side knew that we would be called up before long but such was the ethos of the school that we must have worked just as hard during those few months. I had put down a preference for the Navy and in November 1942 1 received my call up papers and went off to join H.M.S. Ganges at Shotley in Suffolk.
I suppose straight from School into the Services wasn’t too much of a shock. We were used to doing what we were told! I can remember being told off within a few days by the older members of the mess for calling them ‘sir’. It seemed the natural thing to do to one’s elders! It was here that I made one of those formative decisions which affect one’s whole future life. Ganges was the seamen’s training centre and where one learned knots, semaphore and sailing skills. I don’t really think the training had changed from Nelson’s day. I could do a Turks Head knot and splice two ropes together and send messages by flag across the parade ground.
On that parade ground was a massive mast and cross trees again from Nelson’s day. It was said that at the end of one’s training one passed out by climbing the shrouds, out by the futtock shrouds, not through the hole in the cross trees. Up one side and down the other! I do not have a good head for heights and was not looking forward to that. In December they asked if anyone was interested in a radar course so I grabbed the opportunity and volunteered. So was my navy career influenced.
I had some Christmas leave and reported back to Chatham. This was then a holding base for all kinds of transfers. We must have been attached to some mess but the authorities had to find something useful for us all to do, so after we had fallen in each morning we were detailed off to paint heaps of coal white and other pointless jobs. It was midwinter and not very pleasant so a few of us realised that we could get out that by walking around the base clutching a clip-board and looking busy. We were helped by the Wrens at various offices who used to ask us in and give us the traditional navy mugs of cocoa while they pretended to deal with our papers. I suppose I was only then for about a fortnight then I was posted to Rugby to follow an induction course in basic electricity at Rugby Technical College. If I had kept my Service pay book I would have actual dates of postings etc but alas have to rely on memory.
Two of us were in ‘digs’ it was just like going back to school. I learned about volts, amps and ohms and made up some simple circuits. We finished at Rugby in about June and I was posted to H.M.S. Ariel at Newton le Willows near Warrington in Lancashire. It was here that I met the Tickle family and began my acting career. We also changed from wearing square rig into fore and aft. I can remember getting my first No 1 uniform from the Fifty Shilling Tailors in Leigh. Doeskin and bright buttons. It came in useful as a dinnerjacket when I was finally demobbed! Again this was going back to school as we learned how to strip down and rebuild basic radar and wireless sets and had lectures about the principles of radar. All very new at that time. H.M.S. Ariel was halfway between Warrington and Leigh and on one Sunday, wet and dismal, I was in Leigh looking for a bookshop or newsagents that might be open and presumably looking rather lost and befuddled. when a car pulled up and the driver asked if he could help me. I explained what I was looking for and he said that he didn’t know of anywhere open but if I wanted something to read he would lend me a book. So he took me back to his home where I met the rest of the family. He was a doctor and had just completed his round for the day — Harry Tickle by name. His wife was Norah and the two girls were Jane and Sally.
They gave me a meal and some books. This was the beginning of a long wartime association. I used to go there when I had an afternoon or day leave. He would take me out on his rounds and we would chat about everything under the sun. Jane at this time was just starting at Malvern Girls’ School and was having difficulties settling in to a boarding school so it must have been in the autumn of 1943 by this time.
There was a strong drama group at the station and I was persuaded to take part in a play. I can’t remember the title but I had the part of an elderly lawyer, Sir Miles Standish. It was the start of an involvement with amateur dramatics which played such an important part in my life.
At some time we must have separated into either radar or radio mechanics and I was the former. At about Christmas 1943 I passed out as a fully fledged Leading Radar Mechanic and was transferred from the Navy to the Fleet Air Arm. I must have had some leave during this time because I can remember being in Tunbridge Wells and there being air raids. Doodlebugs and Flying Bombs didn’t start until the June of ‘44 but there were plenty of ‘hit and run’ attacks in Kent.

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