大象传媒

Being born during the war (ANZAC day, April 1942) my memories of the period are rather limited. My mum was moved from Portsmouth to Haselmere (Surrey) for my birth and, in talking to visitors to the Nothe Fort, it appears that a number of expectant mothers were sent there from our locality due to the continued bombing of Portsmouth Dockyard etc.

Mother went to stay with her sister in a village called Westboume, which was just a few miles north of Portsmouth. Therefore I indirectly became an " evacuee" from birth and didn't arrive in Portsmouth until 1944 when things were somewhat quieter.

I do remember my Granddad bringing lorries full of matelots for cups of tea served by
my Gran in her small living room. Grandad was too old to serve at sea but, due to his
earlier naval experience, he was able to wear uniform in a reserve capacity. The matelots seemed rather dour to me with their largely black uniforms devoid of colour and insignia but the lorry parked at the front door was always worthy of inspection! During 1945 we heard the air raid siren and being at my Gran's house we rushed into the garden and down into the Anderson shelter. The all clear soon followed and we quickly emerged but the memory of that dark, wet unpleasant place has always stayed with me. We had a substantial above ground shelter at home with a flat roof and this survived for many years (despite covering most of the garden) being used for the storage of coal as well as a workshop.
My father worked for Austin Reeds and he was called up in 1940 as a territorial soldier (hostilities only). Following a period of training he was "embodied" into the 16th Light Anti-aircraft regiment, 46th battery (bofors guns) and was then posted to North Africa to defend the allies desert airfields against German aircraft. His continual service in the Middle East ranged from July 1941 to June 1945! Our first meeting, when I was three years old, was a rather odd experience for both of us.
Following periods in barracks awaiting de-mob (which included Shrapnel Barracks,
Woolwich and Gosfield Airfield, Essex) he was finally released in April 1946 and immediately corresponded with Austin Reeds. He was duly offered his old job back and just as he was about to take up duties he fell ill and sadly died from meningitis in December 1946. I have recently been researching the war diaries of his regiment at the Public Records Office, Kew, to try to understand where he went and what he might have experienced when advancing upon, or retreating from, Rommel's forces.
When peace returned we lads had much fun in Portsmouth climbing over the tanks and bren gun carriers etc. that were stocked up in various scrap metal yards in our locality. Following the war mother married a Chief in the Royal Navy (1948) and following a period at HMS Gamecock at Bramcote near Nuneaton (many seafire aircraft were there, transferred from carriers paying off) my step father was posted to Malta. On arrival there for his three year posting, we had to go ashore from the vessel Empress of Australia via landing craft due to the many wrecks littered within Valetta harbour. The bomb damage to Valetta was very depressing although not much damage can be remembered outside of it. I recently attended a re-union for the Talhandak naval school in
Malta (closed in 1979), some 400 former pupils attending. .

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