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I used to go to the Olympia to dance. I remember how the lights used to reflect at a dance which was full of local girls. There were African and English seamen and later Americans (yanks).
I was on 14 shillings a week — about 75p a week and Yanks paid 6 pounds a week.
We wore rough karki uniforms, smarter suits.
When I went back to Cornwall it was full of Americans - every country lane full of landing craft ready for D-day. England was full of ammunition dumps before D-day and I remember giving bullets to the poor gentlemen who were going to use them.

After the war many beautiful buildings were pulled down. The Queen Anne buildings, which were there during the civil war were pulled down and today now stands a lavatory. At the QA buildings I used to go to get cod liver oil for the kids.

Then I worked at an underground depot in Coresham, Wiltshire, near the barracks and 10 miles from the railway track, near Bath. I remember dancing at the Pump Rooms there.
I then became an antique dealer selling Chippendale chairs and today I still do this.

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