大象传媒

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At school at Cheltenham when war broke out I had little experience of air-raids, except during one alert when there was a direct hit on one of the College Houses. Luckily the Government had commandeered our buildings and the house was completely empty. We were staying in various hotels and during alerts we used to sit in the basement. I chiefly remember one night when, waiting for the 鈥榓ll clear鈥�, I caught up with one of my Latin set books, which had been worrying me for weeks!

Soon after leaving school I had six weeks training as a Meteorological Assistant and was sent to Dunstable where I was, I fear, the worst Met Assistant in the memory of the oldest Forecaster. I had one asset, however; while hitch-hiking about on leave, I would (intuitively) pick on a house that looked as if its inhabitants might be coffee drinkers and offer my other rations in exchange for tea, and would thus be able to offer innumerable cups of tea to my colleagues and Forecasters on night duty.

My only other distinction was, after VE Day, fixing the RAF ensign on the top of the anemometer pole, whence it could be seen all over the town. When the World Press visited us at the end of the war I climbed up again and revolved the vane vigorously for a minute or two, in the hope that the record in the forecast room would register a miniature tornado. Unfortunately I was too vigorous; the pen-arm jumped clear of the record sheet and registered nothing at all.

I shall not forget the excitement on coming on duty one night and learning that Normandy had been invaded!

My brother Jack landed on Sword beach on D Day. He was with the troops which entered Paris where the children called him 鈥淟e gentil Capitaine.鈥� He was shot by a sniper but we were lucky; the wound was less serious than at first thought and we were able to have him for another fifty years. Sadly, my youngest uncle who had won the Military Cross in the First World War, was killed in the retreat from Arras.

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