大象传媒

I was born in Town Green, Wymondham in 1914 and was a twenty-six year old painter and decorator at the outbreak of war. I had two brothers and a sister. My elder brother, Fred, served in the Royal Air Force, my younger brother, Ivan, joined the Royal Navy, and I was called up to the army. My sister went to work in a munitions factory in Welwyn Garden City. When I was called up everyone said, 鈥淵ou鈥檒l be home in six months鈥�.

I was sent thirty miles away to Thetford for my basic training.

During the first week we were on guard duty at the main gates. However, we were not given any bullets for our rifles and would not have been much of a deterrent. Rising at 5.30 a.m. we drilled before breakfast and then we were trained to operate Lewis machine guns.

I never stayed anywhere for very long but, as I was classed A2 health wise, I was never sent abroad. Whenever I was based locally, I would get back to Wymondham as often as I could to see Florence, my wife. People in the town would say, 鈥淎re you home again?鈥�. We were not allowed to travel by train so I would walk or hitchhike. Once I borrowed a bike and got to Wymondham at 2 a.m. I threw gravel up at the window to wake Florence and her mum.

I was posted to Honingham, on searchlight and Lewis gun duty, and we lived in wooden huts, cooking for ourselves. It was rough at first but we soon got used to it. I also spent some time at Great Yarmouth and Gorleston on machine gun guard, just waiting for 鈥榡erry鈥� to come over and pop us.

One day at 6 a.m. we boarded the train at Yarmouth and were locked in the carriages so that no one could abscond. We were not told where we were going and the nameplates on the stations we passed through had been removed. We finished up at Congleton in Cheshire where there was a driving school. I stayed for six weeks and passed out A1. Subsequently I found myself driving high-ranking officers near Goole in Yorkshire. When the Queen was to inspect the Guards Armoured Unit at Sandringham, I had to drive a Bofors gun over there to protect her.

I was at a theatre in London when the report that the war had ended came through. Everything went haywire and we couldn鈥檛 get on a train to get back to our barracks in Woolwich, so we stayed in the city for the night and joined in the celebrations. After
5 years and 10 months in the army, I was demobbed in March 1945 to return to Wymondham in Norfolk.

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