大象传媒

My parents lived in Somerset when war broke out in 1939. They took in an evacuee from Essex, his name was Roy Mansfield, Roy had a brother that was taken in by a neighbour. My father William Jenkins was a miner, the country needed the coal so he had to stay in his job, but he did join the home guard. One day after his shift at the coal mines he decided to clean the rifle he had been issued with. He pointed the rifle at the fire place and it went off with an enormous bang, the room was filled with black smoke, no one was hurt but when the smoke settled my father and Roy emerged with black faces. My mother was in the garden gathering in her washing at the time, she was too frightened to go in the house but when they came out with black faces she was very relieved. After a strong cup of tea they all had to set about cleaning the place up. Needless to say my father didn't clean the rifle again in the house.

After the war Roy settled back in Essex. He eventually married and had a family of his own but he never forgot my parents. Every year when he took his family to the south coast for their annual holidays he would make a detour to Somerset to visit them. He never forgot the incident with the rifle either, that caused a great many laughs whenever they met. When my father became very ill at the age of 83 Roy and his wife Joan came down to Somerset to see him for the last time. Sadly dad died and Roy passed away suddenly a few months later.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.