大象传媒

During the war, much of the basic foodstuffs which had previously been imported were unavailable, as suppliers' ports were closed by enemy conquest and much of the remainder was going to the bottom of the sea courtesy of the German U-boats. As a farmer, my grandfather was prevented from joining up, due to the urgent need for experienced food producers. However, that did not prevent him from joining the Local Defence Volunteers, which later became the Home Guard.

On one occasion (according to my mother) my grandfather went to the local Home Guard Area H.Q. on some errand or other but found it apparently deserted, with no guards to be seen anywhere. Imagining what might happen if a German paratrooper were to happen on the H.Q. under the same circumstances, he picked up a brick from the ground and went in. After entering unopposed by anyone he found a group of officers in a room playing cards. Feeling that if a German paratrooper has been presented with this scene he would have opened fire on the officers, on an impulse he hurled the brick at the card table, startling the officers (who had not noticed him) and ran quickly out of the building. He then ran off through the woods, closely followed by two guards wielding Tommy Guns, who suddenly appeared as he exited the building. Being quite fleet of foot and unencumbered, he out-distanced them slightly but then found himself confronted with a six foot fence. Without hesitation, being pursued as he was by armed men, he jumped the fence and got away. Sceptical next day of whether the fence really had been as high as he had thought at the time, he went back a few days later with a measuring tape and found that the height was in fact six feet!

I am not aware of what, if anything, happened as a consequence of this incident, nor whether it might have grown slightly in the telling, from my grandfather to my mother to me.

Paul Geddes

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