大象传媒

It was December 1944. I was serving on HMS Jamaica and we were in Portsmouth for a refit before heading out to the Far East. My shipmate, Harry Smith suggested that I write to my fianc茅e Annie and ask her to marry me there and then so that our wives could go out on the town with us as a foursome.

I did and she said 鈥測es鈥�.

So Harry and I travelled up to Scotland with some money we had made from selling cigarettes in the local pubs.

Annie and I were duly married in Loch Ore 鈥� the whole village turned out for us!

Because my father was not well enough to travel from Liverpool for the wedding, we went down there to see him. Upon arrival at Liverpool, I found I had lost my wallet, which contained my money, my identification and our tickets. When we attempted to go through the ticket barrier at Lime Street Station, because we had no tickets or identification, the inspector sent for the Naval Police. They marched us under escort down to the Liver Buildings and, after verifying that I was who I said I was, they let us go to see my father. After that we caught the train to Portsmouth. I was due back on board by midnight, but the train was an hour late. I took Annie to her digs and on arriving on board I was told by the officer on watch that I was 鈥渁drift鈥� (naval slang for 鈥渓ate鈥�) and that I would have to see the First Lieutenant (known as 鈥淛immy the 1鈥�) in the morning. He informed me that I was on draft to Plymouth but allowed me one hour to visit my new wife before I caught the train and tell her the good news!

On arriving in Plymouth, I was given seven days stoppage of leave for losing my papers, so my wife spent our honeymoon with my Best Man.

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