大象传媒

At the outbreak of war he was serving as a Special Policeman in London. He had
joined the 鈥榮pecials鈥� in the thirties and went on duty as occasion required. However,
with the war under way and the police service under pressure, he became a full-time
officer and was promoted to sergeant.

Although he now lived in the suburbs, in the family home, he remained at his original
police station. He was subject to the eight-hour shifts of duty of the force, rotating
through the weeks. As indeed was his mother, having to adjust the getting of meals to
suit his work; not to mention the rest of the family, who 鈥榙id their bit鈥� for the war
effort by tip-toeing around whenever he was sleeping-off a night on duty!

He served throughout the major Blitz, and the other blitzes on London. In the nature
of the events of the time he was involved in many incidents. One incident gave rise to
the following entry in the London Gazette of 7th February 1941.

Graham Deacon, Special Constable, Metropolitan
Police Force.
An H.E. bomb demolished the front and
the two top stories of a house. It was discovered
that a man aged 60 was trapped in
a room on the ground floor which was in
ruins. The only method of reaching him was
through a small opening which could not be
made larger owing to the danger of the whole
structure collapsing. It was impossible for
anybody except a small man to squeeze
through this opening to reach the casualty.
Sergeant Deacon volunteered for the task
and with difficulty and great risk to himself,
owing to the state of the building, eventually
succeeded in reaching the injured man. Having
freed him from the debris, Sergeant
Deacon sat with him for two hours in a
cramped position and helped the doctor in
giving medical treatment. Both men were
finally extricated after two hours' work by
the rescuers.
Sergeant Deacon undoubtedly saved this
man's life. Gas was escaping from an
adjacent pipe. During the two hours before
the rescue party reached them debris was
continually falling and at any time the whole
building might have collapsed and killed
both men.

This was the wording of the citation for his award of the George Medal. The
decoration, instituted by King George VI, had only existed for a short while at that
time.
Later in the war an opportunity to train for aircrew in the R.A.F occurred; an offer
which he took up. The picture was taken during this period. However, the war was
nearing a close before the crew training ended and the pressure on flying duties was
rapidly falling away. In consequence the course was aborted, but his service continued
and he became part of the occupation force in the defeated Germany. By this time he
was married and had become a father.

The following is taken from a letter he wrote to his mother in March 1946. He described the train journey from the UK, through France and Belgium. Then in Holland he mentioned the:-

鈥�........hamlets, solitary farmhouses and odd little groups of homes with very little left
undamaged. There had been quite a heavy frost, and it was pitiful to see women and
children standing there shivering with cold to beg for bread or for whatever else we
could offer.鈥�

The servicemen gave out all of their 鈥榙ry鈥� rations to these people. Into Germany then :-

鈥�........and it was the same tale right through the country, and it was obvious from the start
that the stories of our bombing had not been magnified. Towns pretty well wiped off
the map, and along solitary stretches of the line, trucks, engines and coaches on their sides
in the fields where they had been bombed off the line. ........we realised that this was
but the start of our heavy bombing offensives. From then on it is just a story of
shattered towns a cities, railway engines, depots, and rolling stock, in between places
whose names became famous overnight for the pounding they received. Duisburg,
Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Essen, Rheine, Hannover, Luneborg, Munster, Minden and
scores of others........In each one it was the same story. Absolute devastation with
hardly a house that was left undamaged. Square mile on square mile with nothing but
rubble and twisted metal. ........in between these places were the thousands upon
thousands who are seeking some place to live. Packed almost to suffocation in
obsolete coaches, in goods trucks, standing on the bumpers and the running boards,
hanging on for dear life. Men women and children of all ages, they travel like this for
hundreds of miles up and down the country, going nowhere, but always seeking
somewhere to live, with all their possessions strapped to their backs or carried in their
hands. It is all so hopeless, because there is nowhere..........鈥�

He went on to describe how money was worthless, all transactions were by barter,
where cigarettes took pride of place. He summed up:-

鈥淪eeing all this makes you wonder what civilisation is headed for, but any feelings of
pity or sympathy are stifled by the thought of what would have happened to us if things
had gone the other way. Auschwitz and Belsen would have been nothing by comparison.鈥�

He was demobilised later that year.

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