大象传媒

In 1939 I and my fianc茅e had arranged to get married on 2nd September at 10.30. I had joined the 6th Royal Northumberland Fusilier鈥檚 TA Regiment in 1938 at the age of 24. At 8.30 on the morning of my wedding I received my call up papers telling me to report to my Headquarters as I was now on active service. My wife to be panicked and I told her to leave it to me. I arranged with her brother who was going to be my best man to come with me to the drill hall where I had to report to. When I got there I asked the Sergeant |Major if I could see the CO as it was very important to me. Eventually I was seen by the CO and after I had explained I hadn鈥檛 arranged all this to avoid being called up he agreed to give me a 24hr pass so that I could get married. After the wedding, as we were about to have our meal, there was a knock on the door and two Red Caps (Military Police) came in and escorted me back to the drill hall because my pass had been cancelled due to my Company being moved to a new location. The next day we heard that we were moving to Tynemouth and that was the day England declared war on Germany. Then we were told that the 6th Battalion of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was going to be changed to the 43rd Royal Tank Corps which was then split up and made in to two Regiments; the 43rd and 49th. It was all then changed again to the Royal Tank Regiment.

Each company was sent to different locations in the north east; our company was sent to Tynemouth. As we were leaving, we had to pass by my house. I persuaded the sergeant in charge of us to stop at the house so that I could pick something up. When I got there I ran into the house to tell my wife where I was going and that I didn鈥檛 know when I鈥檇 see her again. She grabbed the two tiers of the wedding cake and told me to share it with the lads. When we got to Tynemouth, we spent the next week filling sandbags.

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