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My name is Huw Jones, and I was born in 1910.
In 1940, at the beginning of the war, I had a serious illness, meningitis, that sort of thing. I failed to pass several exams to go into the war. But I remember the seventh meeting in Caernarfon. The chairman told me ‘You see, Huw, we can’t pass you. You’ve got a weakness. Especially the eyes. So we can’t pass you.’ Within six weeks, I was called up again and asked what I wanted to do. So it was either the Royal Air Force or the Fire Brigade. I selected the RAF, in an administrative capacity. ‘Why did you do that?’ he said. I had a brother killed a couple of years before, and he was in the RAF, and I had a brother killed in the First World War as well, so it was important to me.
I was sent down to Cardiff, but I’m from Anglesey originally.
I was in Cardiff from 1943 onwards. Unfortunately, I lost my wife in 1942, leaving me with a boy of 16 months. And my sister brought him up.
Before leaving at the end of the war, I was invited to join the Fire Brigade, so I refused.

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