大象传媒

My father was 18 and working at Simonds Brewery in Reading when the threat of war was in everyone's thoughts. So he joined the TA in August 1939. He was assigned to the Royal Signals Regiment and sent to camp at Littlehampton.
In September when war was declared, they were transferred to Fareham where they lived under canvas. They worked around Portsmouth and Southampton laying telephone lines for anti aircraft gun batteries and search lights. Later my father's unit was sent to the Isle of Wight to maintain communications to gun sites which were for protection of Southern coastal towns and were being sabotaged. Whilst repairing some telephone lines, he noticed a woman acting suspiciously near by and reported it to his superiors. The woman was subsequently taken to Winchester and charged under the official secrets Act and was suspected of being a spy.
After the evacuation of Dunkirk, my father's unit was sent to set up communications in Canterbury, Winchester and Salisbury as the bombing became more intense. Later when doodlebugs were introduced, the Signals set up mobile sites covering the whole of the South coast.
In 1943 whilst on leave in Reading my father met a young, pretty blonde girl named Jean who worked at a munitions factory in Theale, just outside the town. They communicated with each other throughout his service until he was granted leave in March 1944 to marry.
Soon after, my Father's regiment was sent to India. They travelled in a Dutch vessel called the Johaan Van Belt via the Suez Canal, refuelled at Port Said and then continued until they reached Bombay. After setting up communications in Bombay, he was transferred to Delhi, then to Bangalore to set up communications and to intercept intelligence from the Japanese.
When VE day was declared in 1945, my father was returned to England to be demobbed and took up his previous position at the Brewery.
Meanwhile the war with Japan continued for some months and tragically Arthur's younger brother Ted died of starvation in a prison camp in Borneo before he could be repatriated.
My father died in February 1996 and my mother in October 1998 after more than 50 years of marriage.

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