大象传媒

I started school in 1943 and the Americans were stationed here in 1944. Barry Knell has a photo of a school party which includes the children and school mistress. I am in the school photograph and I was only five years old at the time. We were given sweets by the Americans. We took exams at about eleven years old and if we didn鈥檛 pass we stayed on at school until we were fourteen or fifteen. The older pupils in the photograph had carpentry lessons and they made presents for the younger boys. They made ships out of a plank with a point at one end and wood on top and used cuts of broom handles for funnels, there were guns on them made of wood. They were painted in basic colours, green or brown. All the toys were placed in wooden boxes with lids. The local vicar would issue prizes to the younger children. I can still remember the smell of the paint. When you opened the boxes the wonderful smell of new paint rose up. The ships could be pulled along on a piece of string.

About the same time I was standing on the bridge of Burton Bradstock next to the playing field and my father pointed out a trout in the river. The trout turned and darted under the bridge and I turned and ran to the other side of the bridge. An American jeep couldn鈥檛 stop in time. I was hit by the jeep and had badly cut knees, my knees were bandaged up. The next day theAmericans came round with more sweets and candy for me. I will always remember the look on my father鈥檚 face when it happened. My father was awarded military meddles in World War I, he was in the Engineers, Henry Richard 鈥淒ick鈥� Galpin was born in Powerstock.

We would collect the anti-aircraft shells they were about three or four inches long. The spent cases would be found by the guns. As boys we would play war games and some of the boys would collect them by the string. I wanted the cases and Bill Nethercott said to me give me your cap, so he took the cap. The next day he gave it back to me and there were six of eight shells in it. We would keep them or swap them with our friends for pram wheels for carts and things like that. We couldn鈥檛 use the beach during the war years, there were gun emplacements. We learnt to swim on the beach after the war. The way to learn was to go out in the sea and out of your depth and just swim. No one was teaching us we were just with friends.

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