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Introduction

This testimony has been submitted on behalf of one of my uncles, Private Ronald Ritson, RAMC. It explains how and why he was allowed to leave the Army in 1945, adjusting to post-war civilian married life in Cumbria and London, keeping in touch with wartime colleagues and Veterans Associations. Private Ritson was called by the Royal Army Medical Corps on 4 September 1939 and was demobilised on 12 November 1945. He passed away in July 2000.

Ronald shared these memories to help me with a university research project I was doing. He signed a form agreeing that I could write about these, that they could be placed in an archive and that others could read them if they wished. It is an honour to share this memory about Word War Two and the immediate post-war period with others.

Demobilisation in 1945

ā€œAfter May the Eighth 1945, that was V.E. Day, we went to a place in Belgium, I forget where at. With it being a Regular Army Division, they were going to send it out to Palestine as it was called then. There was trouble out there, just at that time. The advance party had gone out, but none of our personnel had gone, just the advance party of the Division.

Anyway, there was something in my mind that I didnā€™t wish to go out there. Iā€™d been in the Army six years and I hadnā€™t been married very long. Of course, if theyā€™d sent me out there, youā€™d have had to go!

So we were in Belgium and I think after a few days, somebody came out of the Ordinary Room and called me in. He said, ā€œIf you want to go back home, you can!ā€ I looked at him and replied, ā€œCan you say that again, please?ā€ So, he said, ā€œIf you want to go back home, you can! But, youā€™ve got to go back into the pits!ā€ Without hesitation I said, ā€œI do! Give me that piece of paper please, Iā€™m going!ā€ So I was going to get demobbed and go back in the coalmines Iā€™d left in 1939.

When I came home to Britain, first of all they sent me back to Aldershot to be discharged. Well of course, being in the Forces so long, from the War started to the war finished I didnā€™t have any civilian clothes. Neither did anybody else in the Forces. So, what they did, they rigged us all out with new clothes, everything. So, we didnā€™t do too badly. It meant we had something to come home with.

Then I came home, and started down Moresby Pit again! I went back to work at Walkmill Colliery, Moresby Parks. My wife Marie obtained a discharge from the WRAF as well. She went with me from London, South Norwood, back up to near Moresby. Marie lived with us at Scilly Banks. We took the train from London to Whitehaven. This was in the November of 1945.

Registered Work

My wife Marie wasnā€™t too keen being up at Scilly Banks. Itā€™s just a small village really, about twenty houses all told. Obviously, we were living in and houses were bad to come by. So, I said we would go back to London. Unfortunately, they wouldnā€™t let me out of the pits! They said that that was what Iā€™d come home for. Because it was ā€˜Registered Workā€™, I couldnā€™t leave, unless I went into other pits!

There were no pits in London. The nearest were in Kent. This was all in a letter I got from the Coal Board. This was in 1946 just after the war but it was all Government controlled then. They just wouldnā€™t let the workers move as they wanted.

So, what happened then was that I went to see Tom Stephenson, who at that time was the Minerā€™s Agent of Cumberland. He had an office in Workington, so I went to see him there, showed him the letter and told him my story. Then Tom Stephenson said to me, ā€œIgnore it, and go!ā€ I replied, ā€œDo you mean that?ā€ He said, ā€œYes!ā€ And that was what I dd.

Away I went with Marie, this was September 1946, and went back to London .We got two rooms on Sangley Road, near where Marieā€™s parents lived on Huntley Road, South Norwood. It was near Crystal Palace Football Club. Marieā€™s parents were very nice, and we were very independent, so we were quite happy. So we lived in London for a while, and started a family. We had a baby daughter. But houses were bad to get down there in London, so we later moved back to Scilly Banks and then to Whitehaven. They were building the new council estate at Mirehouse and we got a house on Borrowdale Road.

Keeping in touch with wartime colleagues

I still kept in touch with my former CO in the Army, Major Hargreaves. We used to write letters back and forward. He had been demobbed and he was now down in Truro, Cornwall, I think as Medical Officer of Health. He was way down in Cornwall and I was up in Cumbria, but we always kept in touch.

May I add here that we did manage to meet up with Major Hargreaves and his wife after he retired and they had moved up to Scotland, in Kelso. We were back living in Whitehaven then so it wasnā€™t too far. It gave me a chance to take my wife up to meet him and his wife. It was a joyous time, a happy time both for them and for us.

Wartime associations

Looking back at the war, I didnā€™t join any organisations like the British Legion, or Normandy Veterans, nothing like that. This was not for any particular reason. It may have been just the feeling that when you join the British Legion or a Veterans Association or something like that, you still seem to be kind of disciplined. I didnā€™t mind discipline in the army. I was pretty well used to it because I was a batman and a chauffeur. So my part was really getting the Commanding Officer ready for parade. So, I really wasnā€™t frightened of anything like that.

But as for joining the British Legion or a Veterans Association it was just a feeling that Iā€™m maybe laid-back in civilian life. Really, that was it! Although if there were any parades or anything like that, I maybe would go along and take part in them, or go down to the Cenotaph in Whitehaven. If I didnā€™t do that, Iā€™d watch the Cenotaph Service from Whitehall on the television in November, along with my wife Marie.ā€

Conclusion

I can remember Ronald and his wife Marie attending local Remembrance Sunday services and parades. They had grandchildren who were members of Cadetsā€™ Forces who took part in the services and marched in the parades.

As Ronald relates in the above testimony he kept in touch with his former CO, Major Hargreaves Neither Ronald nor Marie talked a lot about the war to the younger generations of their family. However, if there was one person that was regularly mentioned from the war years, it was Major Hargreaves.

In Ronaldā€™s testimony given above he explains how delighted he was that he was able to introduce Marie to Dr and Mrs Hargreaves after the war. Ronald always paid tribute to this fine officer, and I am pleased to share this memory in this account. Although I was not present at this meeting, it must have been a fine occasion. I also would like to acknowledge the kindness of Dr Hargreaves, Mrs Hargreaves and their children for sharing some of their own memories of the war with my uncle and myself. It greatly assisted my research about the Battle of Normandy.

When Ronald says in his testimony that he took part with Marie in remembrance services about the war, they were really doing so ā€˜silent witnessesā€™. They would witness what was taking part and remember their own experiences of World War Two. I can never remember either of them marching in a parade, nor wearing their wartime medals.

In November 2004, I mentioned to one of their children that I had never seen Marie and Ronaldā€™s medals. It was only then, almost sixty years after being awarded them, that I saw their medals for the first time. I am pleased to submit this article to their memory.

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