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Alf was twelve when the war started. He left school at 14 and went to work at the dairy. After two years working at the dairy he was given his own milk round. He can remember a couple of bombs coming down near the railway. His milk round took him round the Meadow Lawn area of Tonbridge.

Milk was rationed during the war. He can remember when the Americans came over they didn’t know it was rationed and when he told them it was they would offer large amounts of money for the milk, so he would ‘find a way’ of getting them milk. He used to nickname his route the canteen route, as so many people would stop and make him a cup of tea. He used to drop into see the butcher, but would get there a few minutes before the butcher (who had gone to work in the morning) and the butcher’s wife would give Alf the butcher’s breakfast. One woman on his round who he never actually served, would invite him in every Friday for toast and a cup of coffee.

He remembers the Antiaircraft Guns at Tonbridge School. When the air raids happened the children were told to go inside, but Alf and some of his mates would go up with their fathers to do Fire Watching. A lot of the men had been in the First World War Alf heard many war stories from these men. There was a lot of shrapnel falling from the sky they had no tin hats.

A lot of Alf’s friends, who where a few years older than him, joined the army. He recalls that they looked as it as an adventure, although there was a serious side to the war.

After the war he was a bus driver for eight years. This is when he met his wife. She had been evacuated to Wales during the war. His married years were ‘the best years of his life.’

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