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Ken Woolcott and Jose Woolcott, Wembley
Ken and Jose were married in 1940 on Ken鈥檚 first, seven day leave. They had two very different experiences during the war.

Ken: When war was declared I was 23 and helping to evacuate old people from Percy House in Isleworth to Maidenhead. I was working for Middlesex County Council at the time. I heard the air raid warning go off on that first day.

After I signed up, I became a wireless operator. I had two weeks to learn Morse Code at the rate of 25 words a minute. You learnt to know who was at the other end as each person had their own rhythm. I think Morse code is beautiful, a bit like music to those of us who listened to it every day. After the war I never forgot it and even used to do Morse Code with my feet in bed!

While I was training on Salisbury Plain we had a Royal Visit. I was sitting in my ACV (Armoured Command Vehicle) when the King popped his head around the door and said 鈥淵ou look very comfortable in there鈥�. I thought it was a bit of a silly thing to say at the time, but I suppose he had to say something!

I was stationed for some of the war in the desert. It could be a very frightening place at times. We had lots of little camps and used to go across at night from one to another for a cup of tea. One night I got lost on my way back to my camp in the dark. The desert is vast and I had no idea which way to go, until I looked up and saw the North Star and the Plough, I then knew which way was north and managed to find my way back, but I would have been lost if it wasn鈥檛 for the North Star!

I remember arriving at Durban, the famous white woman of Durban was amazing, singing a welcome to the troops. I was there for nearly 3 months before moving to Cairo. We nearly went back to visit a family I was friendly with in Johannesburg after the war but decided against it in the end.

From Cairo I moved to the Western Desert. How far you could advance depended on when the petrol ran out! At one point I drove in a wireless truck through the Italian lines all around back to El Alamein. Corporal Baggy described it as having been through the 鈥楪ates of Hell鈥�. On the way through we met another convoy who had decided to head for Tobruk, but Corporal Baggy decided against it because he said that Tobruk always falls, he was right and we were lucky that we had gone all the way to El Alamein. On that journey I became very ill with dysentery and fever. I felt terrible and wanted to be left in the desert but Baggy would not hear of it. He made me continue until they could find a Red Cross convoy to take me. Baggy saved my life on that journey.

Sport played a big part in my war. I was a cricketer and a footballer. I trained at Catterick Camp where I played cricket with Len Hutton, he was a big name in those days. In fact he broke his leg while at Catterick and was there for a few months. He used to get annoyed as he got out LBW in every match! I also played cricket with Jim Laker from the Yorkshire League, - he was also a great footballer. We played together at in Egypt.

When stationed in Moascar I was Chairman of an entertainment club called the Jimmy Club. We arranged events and also had a parliament called Grippers Grange were soldiers could air their grievances about things like the conditions and could let off steam. We arranged quizzes, and played dance records. I arranged them with another soldier called Wally Bird so we called them Birdcott productions!

I still believe that the war was necessary. In the desert for much of the time we actually had more respect for the German Generals like Rommel because they were actually there on the front lines with their troops. It was very hard at the time because we felt there was no support. The skies were filled with German Stukas and there were no British planes. That was until Montgomery came along, then things improved.

The war was very hard. It took me at least 4 years when I came back to be able to talk about it

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