大象传媒

This story was submitted to the Peoples War site by Jas from Global Information Centre Eastbourne and has been added to the website on behalf of Mr Alford with his permission and he fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions

I got itchy feet when my other brother in law who lived in Newark in Nottinghamshire threw out an idea about moving up there and having a smallholding.

He and his father were butchers and transporters with several fields with cattle, sheep and pigs. They said I could have their orchard which had a caravan and they would set me up with chickens, ducks and a pig. My wife went along with it because I think she thought she wouldn鈥檛 have to work again.

I got another job as well at the Horton Army Camp where they were pleased to employ me with my knowledge of army vehicles. I was reasonably happy but the Midlands way of life was hardly what we were used to in the south. When you took the ladies out for a drink they sat in one bar and the men in another, nor really our way!

My wife took frequent visits back to London to see friends and family. I could see this wasn鈥檛 going to work and our relationship wasn鈥檛 what it was. She had obviously spoken to her father whilst in London and he had offered her his flat in Twickenham if we wanted to move back to London.

It is now mid 1949 and ready for another move. Gina went down by train and I bought a little Ford van for 拢100 and followed on down a week later. In the meantime she had got her old job back typing at Gilletts on the North Circular Road and I was soon offered a job travelling in silk lampshades 鈥� what a contrast! This job was based in Kennington and I travelled within about a 30-40 mile radius.

It wasn鈥檛 long before I was doing business with Harrods, Perrings in Kensington and several other large establishments.

Whilst in Kingston, Surrey I started branching out to several very well appointed antique shops with my good practical knowledge on repairing furniture and converting vases into very attractive lamps and making a lovely silk shade to go with it.

I was on my way! I worked very hard to get established and in the meantime my wife decided to have an affair with one of her old boy friends so that was the end of that marriage.

I moved back with my parents who fortunately accepted me and I carried on my business from there and getting a more up to date van.

My wife pleaded with me to go back and admitted what an idiot she had been and still loved me and only me and would never marry anyone else. I was either too proud or stubborn, I don鈥檛 know which, but I was so hurt after what we once were I just couldn鈥檛 go back.

Sixty years on I still don鈥檛 know whether I did the right thing or not. It made me quite bitter and never quite knowing whether I could trust again, I did! It鈥檚 up until January 1953 that I wait until my decree nisi is absolute, a long wait but life went on and my business had improved enough to consider purchasing a shop.

I discussed this with my parents and suggested selling the house we were living in and buying a shop which had become available in Northwood, Middx about a mile from where we were living. The sale and purchase went through without a hitch and we all moved in to the flat above. The next step on the ladder.

By now I am in to antique furniture as well as the period lighting and the lampshades. Northwood was a good area with quite a lot of wealthy people and a lot of showbiz people as well. My parents were very good, they used to manage the shop when I was out travelling, keeping in touch with all my old Clients and still learning a lot about antiques.

By now they have confidence enough in me to repair and renovate some of their broken and damaged pieces. I built a good sized workshop in my back garden so I had ample room to carry out the work. I built up quite a reputation in the area for period lighting.

I had lots of old rise and fall fittings with the skirt shades and beautiful bead fringes on them. I found two elderly sisters who loved threading beads all day, which I supplied, into fringes anything from 2鈥� 鈥� 8鈥� long.

Of course all my experience from the gas company with whom I served my apprenticeship came in very handy. The gas brackets I used to drill through to enable an electric flex to go through and put an old pair of glass shades on, they looked fabulous and sold like hot cakes.

I had to get all my fellow antique dealers and friends to look out for them for me. I was also into crystal chandeliers by now. I used to buy odd lots of Georgian glass at auctions and damaged or broken fittings as well, marry them together to make wonderful light fittings, one of which was sent into Hampton Court Palace.

It is round about this time that my older sister Mary, her husband George and two children Lynda and Fraser aged about 5 and 6 decided to uproot and go to Australia.

In those days they wanted professional people out there and were prepared to pay their fares. As far as I can remember the parents paid 拢10 each and the children were free. I was sorry to see them go but admired their pluck. They never came back! In the meantime I soldiered on but by now my parents are getting a little fed up with the pressure I was putting them under.

My younger sister Sheila was married and living in Newark in Nottinghamshire so I had a word with her to see if she could contemplate having them up there. She had four fairly young children and thought it a wonderful idea.

My parents were very happy about a change so with a little help from Sheila and the estate agents I managed to buy them a bungalow with a lovely garden in the same spinney as my sister. Everyone was happy all round.

Now I have a business, a flat to myself and no money. All spent on getting them established. I owed them this and was very happy to do it. There wasn鈥檛 anything in my life too permanent at the moment, a few love affairs with the wrong women so I tried to get some more money together before I could even contemplate another serious relationship.

Time seems to drift along but by now I am involved in playing golf on my Wednesday afternoons when I close the shop. Also I fit a few visits every year to see my parents, my sister and her family.

I think it was about 1960-61 that I had been burning the candle at too many ends when I landed up in hospital with a nervous breakdown.

Fortunately I had two very loyal ladies working for me in the shop at the time so it was almost business as usual. I had a spasm in my lower back so they trussed me up with a corset and there I stayed for over a month.

On coming out they told me to keep wearing the corset and take it easy for a while. Hardly the right person to be told to take it easy. I thought it is time at this stage of my life to give myself a good talking to and change my way of life.

I am now about 40 years of age with nothing much apart from a business, so I went to an Osteopath. He was a blind man and, on looking at my back he said 鈥測ou either keep that corset on for the rest of your life or let me get to work on you put things back where they should be鈥�.

It was quite a long and sometimes painful wait, but we got there in the end. I realised that there was only one person who was going to cure me and that person was myself, mind over matter, it worked and has done every since.

I am now back working within my own limitations and beginning to feel a human being again. My second wife is now on the horizon but I didn鈥檛 know it to start with. It was all down to a girlfriend of hers who was a fairly regular customer of mine who one day brought this lady into buy some light fittings and shades, apparently she had just moved.

This went on for several weeks, neither of us knowing the other was a single person. One gets that eye contact and saying to oneself, I like her! I eventually found out she was widowed with two children about 5 and 6 years old and I told her I was divorced.

It wasn鈥檛 until I volunteered one Sunday morning to hang the chandelier and after lunch there the children were getting a little suspicious. Well that was the beginning of the courtship and eventual marriage on June 12th 1962.

I took her off on honeymoon leaving my two very loyal capable ladies in charge of the shop for a month. Mary鈥檚 mother took over charge of the two children and the house. The holiday was being spent in Italy on the Ligurian coast with trips to Menton, Monte Carlo and inland to Milan.

The weather was fantastic and for the first time in my life I overdid the sunbathing and peeled a bit. I got my leg pulled after bragging that I never peeled after all my time in the western desert during the war.

I did get some praise though when I bought a dress for Mary in one of the markets which needed a little alteration. I spoke in Italian to make the necessary changes and within an hour we went back again and she tried it on and it fitted perfectly.

Our next stop, after lots of swimming, beautiful food and drink was a train trip to Paris, a lovely city but very expensive. The hotel we stayed at was at first a little disappointing but after a quick chat with the manager we had our room changed and a better position in the restaurant.

After all we were on honeymoon and I wanted the best. We had the rest of our stay there and then flew back to England and a car back home to Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, where family and friends were delighted to see us back.

A couple of days later and back to work to see how my ladies had coped without me! No problems, but I had to get back out on the road to see all my other shops and antique dealers to find out what they wanted of me.

Fortunately lots of orders and vases to convert into lamps and make lovely silk shades for.

Life went on as in most normal families, a bit strange for me being a step father to a boy and a girl of 5 and 6 but I managed the best I could, leaving most of their big decisions to their mother. I think they were both still missing their father so I didn鈥檛 want to push my luck too soon.

After about a year we had a discussion as to whether it was a good idea to move and put our mark together on a new property. This we did and moved to Moor Park in Middlesex, only a few miles away but a lovely house and bigger with double garage and pretty garden. By now the children had finished prep school and Christopher, whose father had put him down to go, went to Merchant Tailors which was at Sandy Lodge, which fringed Moor Park and Diane went to a private school in Northwood which also fringed Moor Park.

My shop incidentally was in the Old High Street of Northwood too!

Mary by now had joined an International Woman鈥檚 Group called Beta Sigma Phi they do charity work to further the interests of women.

I have joined Chamber of Trade two years after my back problems and I am playing golf regularly again on Wednesday afternoons after closing the shop.

The children are doing well at their individual schools and Mary and I are going out and entertaining at home quite a lot. We have decided to change home again and move a bit further out to Loudwater in Hertfordshire.

A pretty little house with double garage and we built a studio on top. Mary had all her arty friends round to paint a couple of times a week and we also had an American artist living with us, full house鈥�!

I fortunately had my own business to cope with! Diane by now has met a very charming boy, complete with guitar and long hair and beard. The hippy 70鈥檚 I seem to remember.

They were soon married a year on! Again I got a colleague of mine to get them a flat in Hampstead. My wife at this time thinks it would be a good idea if Chris came to work with me at the shop.

Not being a practical person I had a job to find something for him to do. He thought he could change all my order books and put everything on cards in filing cabinets.

I don鈥檛 think he realized that every order I had in my order book I knew without looking at the book.

We eventually had to make a move down to Eastbourne where Mary鈥檚 previous mother in law was living and not coping all that well with a fairly large house she had.

It was decided that we would sell up and buy her house and get her a flat on the front. I was all in favour of selling my Northwood shop and buying another in Eastbourne but my wife said it would be better for Christopher to carry on with Northwood and live in the flat above. I agreed and bought a shop in Grove Road Eastbourne.

A lovely double fronted shop next to a Furrier on one side and Lord Gages Art Gallery on the other. It wasn鈥檛 long before I got well known and the dealers found it very convenient to off load all their old light fittings and gas brackets and shades.

I might add that the shop in Northwood wasn鈥檛 doing as well without me and I eventually had to sell it before it went down hill any more. It took me several weeks to catch up with all the bookwork that had been neglected. I had no trouble at all in selling it as a going concern, leaving quite a lot of stock behind to get him going.

Christopher of course had to come down to Eastbourne and live with us but he did find himself another job. Diane by this time has had two children, Matthew and Sophie and another 4 or 5 years before having Sebastian, all three lovely children and I adore them all.

Times are moving on and I am approaching 65 years old and contemplating retirement. Not a bit of it! The Lord Gage next door says 鈥淚 want you to come and manage by gift shop out at Firle Place 3 afternoons a week.

The Auction rooms which were Edgar Horn in South Street wanted me to work part time there as a Porter. I told them both they would have to wait a month to get my own business sold and have a rest for a few weeks. This I did and enjoyed both jobs very much until about 2 years later we decided to move out into a quieter village i.e. Dallington.

Only a very small cottage but directly opposite the Church. By now Christopher has married a lady with 2 children and he is now diabetic due to a very nasty car crash where one of the occupants was killed and the other two in the back badly injured. My wife, whilst we were in Eastbourne, was offered a job at the Grand Hotel.

She had a desk in the front hall and sorted the guests problems out. I forgot to mention that she is now a Soroptomist, another worldwide charity doing lots of good work.

While we were there she became the South Eastern Divisions Union President. When we moved she joined the Tunbridge Wells Branch.

Well it didn鈥檛 take us long to settle in to our new way of life in Dallington. I did various restoration jobs in the Church and took over the job of winding the clock up in the tower once a week and became a sidesman in the Church.

I am now 68 years old and getting a little bored with not having enough to do, so I ask a farmer if I can rent one of his sheds to start doing some antique restoration work again.

The villagers soon started bringing their broken treasures to me to repair. I am happy again! Mary in the meantime my wife has joined in with the village W.I. and writing plays for the village to enact.

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