大象传媒

In 1944 I was 5 years old and I lived in the pleasent leafy suburb of Roundhay in Leeds, Yorkshire. At the rear of our house in North Park Avenue and beyond soe allotments created two years ealier to help the 'Dig for Victory' campaign, were open fields, and i remember vividly the Army setting up a mobile radio station with lots of vans full of equipment and impressive aerial arrays- it was this that engendered in me a lifelong interest in radio and broadcasting. Several of the larger houses in our road had been empty throughout the war up to this point, but during the early months of 1944, they became commandeered by the Army to provide billets for the numerous divisions of fighting me gathering together up and down the country, to form the Allied Expeditinary Force shortly to land in Europe.
Each platoon would drill up and down the road each day and us kids would tag along on the back of the squad and march with the men. This eventually led to us being invited back to their billet to share their tea. Now you can imagine a five year old trying to drink tea from a rectangular mess-tin almost as large as I was. Let me assure you, it was not easy.
Then came the day when they all disappeared. At that age, of course, I had no idea why they were there of where they were going but I've often wondered since, of all those men who befriended me, how many returned from fighting.
This is why Remembrance Day means so much to me.

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