大象传媒

An account by my father, Jeffrey Jackson, of his time with the Royal Army Medical Corps at Porton Down, England:

'We arrived safely from Egypt in the Mersey and disembarked at Liverpool. After leave, I had to go to the Royal Engineers' base in Halifax, where they started trying to retrain people who hadn't done any drill for years.

Fortunately, I was soon recalled to Porton, where I worked in Dr Howarth Williams' lab analysing samples taken from captured German equipment. It was here that samples of German war gases arrived after Allied troops had entered Germany and captured stocks of gas shells. Howarth Williams analysed them and was startled to find that they contained phosphorus, since none of our gases did. This meant that, had they been used, we would have had no defence against them. In addition, the physiology lab reported that they were so toxic that even minute quantities on the skin could kill. After this, Howarth Williams treated them with far greater respect.'

[Organophosphorus nerve agents were revolutionary chemical weapons which the Allies knew nothing about until the end of the war.]

'It was also during this period in Porton that I was sent on two courses run by the Army Education Corps. The first was in Bristol and was intended to turn me into a teacher of French and German (in two weeks). The tutor was a certain Eric Hobsbawm, who went on to become well known as a Marxist historian. While in Bristol, I visited my aunt, who was then living there, and was able to listen on the radio to the first performance of 'Peter Grimes' by Benjamin Britten.

The second course was supposed to train me as a teacher of science. It was held in Preston, not far from Bolton, the home of my friend Phil Cole, and was also due to last two weeks. On the Sunday, I decided to go to Bolton and try to find him. I had the address, in Greenmount Lane, but I had never been to Bolton. I got as far as a place called Horwick, where I found a tram that was going to Bolton. As it trundled along, I started to get the feeling that I was getting closer to where I wanted to go. This feeling grew stronger and stronger, until in the end I asked someone in the tram if I was anywhere near Greenmount Lane. 'It's the next stop,' was the reply. I have no explanation for this.

Finally VE Day arrived, but I didn't get excited because I assumed that I would be sent to Burma. Instead, at the beginning of 1946, I was sent back to Halifax for demobilisation.'

-- Read all L Jackson's edited contributions about her father's service

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