大象传媒

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Jean

I was living at home in Garden Road in Dunstable with my parents and sister. I worked for Henry Hughes who made nautical instruments. I worked in the office, dealing with employee鈥檚 time cards.

I learnt to play the church organ. We had a very good organist who offered to teach me to play on the organ at West Street Baptist Church. I belonged to the St John鈥檚 Ambulance brigade and went on parade in Ely and shook hands with Lady Mountbatten.

John and I got married in 1943.

John

I knew I was coming home on leave so we decided to get married. I had to get a special license but this could be obtained through the forces quite cheaply.

Jean

I went to Luton with my mother and bought a green dress. Your mother cried all though the ceremony because she was losing her boy! As a honeymoon we spent two days in London and then John was away for the next two and a half years.

John

I lived in Westfield Road, Dunstable where my dad kept a small general shop. He managed to get registered to sell almost everything under the sun, as you had to if you wanted to carry on trading, expanding his grocery business quite considerably. I worked as a fitter鈥檚 mate for the Dunstable Gas and Water Company. Just before the war started there was a kind of warning that things were about to get serious. One of the jobs I had to do was help shut off the burners on gas street lights, in preparation for the blackout. I also remember helping to fit gas cookers in old houses and buildings that were uninhabited. There were several old maltings that were owned by Bennett鈥檚 Brewery and many of these along with the previously empty houses were brought into use. The brewery at the bottom of Chiltern Road was taken over by the military as a barracks. We had two soldiers billeted in our two bedroomed house and ended up very overcrowded, with my parents, myself and my sister.

On one occasion we had a very bad accident in the town. From the brewery they used to march the guard down to the old drill hall, which was almost on the corner of High Street North and Tavistock Street. One dark night the guard were marching down the road when a lorry went straight into the back of these soldiers, many of whom were killed. Conditions in the blackout were quite frightening. People bumped into lampposts and telegraph poles and many were injured simply by walking along their own street.

I joined the Home Guard, Gas Works Platoon and somehow worked my way up to being in charge. I had to organise the men and keep watch every night, patrolling just in case Gerry landed by parachute. We covered the Gas Works area and part of Brewer鈥檚 Hill. We were joined by the platoon from the railway, which was based in High Street North. The next platoon was AC Sphinx. As time went on they dropped so many incendiary bombs over London, that we had to carry out fire watching as well.

There were a lot of POWs in Dunstable during the war. Many of the Italians were given leave at the weekends. My father employed a couple of them to creosote his fence and look after his garden. He then gave them a meal before they went back to the camp at the Gliding Club.

There was a decontamination centre in Kirby Road. I remember going there with a fitter and helping to fit water heaters, sprays and showers in case there was any need to decontaminate following a possible gas attack.

At eighteen I was called up and went to the drill hall in Northampton for a medical. All of us had to stand there naked in a large room being passed from doctor to doctor. I then had to report to HMS Collingwood in Fareham on May 8th 1942. I did my wireless telegraphy training there. We also had to take part in other exercises; I was in the spigot mortar crew. We had to practise firing these things which were very difficult to handle. We also had to peel spuds, sweep up, whitewash kerbstones, fuse bombs and fire rifles. When I passed out I was posted to HMS Mercury which was the signals school near Petersfield. I was then drafted to Portsmouth, Victory Barracks and from there we went to the west coast of Iceland and joined another ship, HMS Blenheim. After about six months we came back to the UK for a re-fit. It was during this time that I managed to get leave and married Jean in a hurry really. Not that we needed to, it was just that I knew I was going away for a long time.

When the ship was ready, we joined a large convoy and sailed to Gibraltar and from there to Alexandria. I was then based in the Middle East until the war ended and eventually came home in January 1946.

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