大象传媒

My wife and I got married in October 1940. We were going to wait till later, but I got called up. We were living in Dudley at the time - I was studying for my exams to become an inspector of Weights and Measures. I felt a bit apprehensive about joining up, and it took a bit of getting used to.
I was sent to Africa in July 1941. We didn't know where we were going. We had to go by liner, and it was pretty rough, although you soon got used to it. There were various things to do on the ship. For example, we had a ceremony when we crossed the equator, something to do with Neptune. We weren't allowed to get off the boat at Freetown, but we had shore leave in Durban; unfortunately I lost my roll of film, so I only ever had one photograph of it! I was very keen to see Egypt and thrilled to be there. I remember climbing the Great Pyramid. I used to send all my letters home to Margery, and I promised her that I would take her there after the war. The letters were censored, but we put into them everything we wanted to. We did go there several times on holiday in the end.
Margery used to worry if she didn't get a letter for a while. She was an air raid warden in Dudley. She used to go round the shelters and check people were ok. Once a bomb dropped very near, but it was just outside her district. That was very lucky! One night she had to go searching for an unexploded bomb, but they didn't find it, which was good as she would not have known what to do if she did find it!
I was demobbed in 1946 and went to Dudley, but Margery wasn't there as she was on holiday with her parents in the Isle of Wight. I went down to her and she met me off the boat, crying. It was nice to spend my first few days home on holiday!

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