大象传媒

This is about my father, Sydney Brooks (1917-92). At birth, he had not been expected to survive, and underwent a major operation. It left him with scar tissue all down his left side and an inability to turn his body easily. (This gave him serious trouble in later life when trying to put on a safety belt in the passenger seat of a car. He was O.K. when in the driving seat.)
Mind you, in 1939 he expected to be called up. On the other hand, he did not rush to volunteer. He told a tale of playing snooker with his friend Fred Valentine (later a Northamptonshire bobby) in the Fanciers' Club when Chamberlain's speech was heard on the wireless. Apparently, being a club, it could open earlier in the day than the pubs, which is why they were there. Other people went down to the Market Square where it was believed that one could sign on. My father and Fred carried on playing snooker. The story has a whiff of Francis Drake and the game of bowls, so I was never sure if it was strictly true, but he stuck to it and told it often enough.
When the call came - some weeks later - he reported as instructed. The medical officer took one look at him and ruled him unfit. I think that, later, he was ill at ease with the fact that he had not been in the fighting forces as such, but he was soon called up into a reserved occupation doing essential war work with armaments gauges, posted to Uttoxeter, and joined the Home Guard.
When Dad's Army came on TV he enjoyed it but he said that, in reality, things were even more stupid than they were portrayed in the series.
He was offered a Lance-Corporal's stripe and an extra sixpence a week, but it would have meant an extra night's guard duty as well, so he declined. Even in those days you could not buy much for sixpence. Besides (he said), Lance-Corporals tended to be in the firing line when blame was being handed down from above.
He had a number of stories that he would tell pretty often. I have set down as many as I can remember in other entries on this site.
Fred Valentine, incidentally, was with the Eighth Army Military Police, and finished as a Lance-Corporal. My father kept a Christmas card sent by Fred from Austria in 1945: "British Troops in Austria Christmas 1945", with his service number and contact details written inside. It is now in my son's possession.

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