大象传媒

I was very glad to find the Auxiliary Fire Service listed in this archive. This is not so much a war memory, more a memory of a kind and gentle man.
My dad , James Bennett Knight, was not related to me by blood but I am very glad to have known him and his mother, my 'scottish granny'.
He had enough medical problems, some caused by his stepfather, to be unfit for service but managed to talk himself into the A.F.S. ! Now that I think of it he was probably a bit on the short side for the regular Fire Service. Otherwise I think he would have stayed with them after the war as some of his friends did.
The section must have been "Perth and Kinross" as we stayed in touch with one of his friends in Kinross for some years. It seemed to me during my school days that most of the ex A.F.S. men (there were women in photos I've seen!) became school janitors.
The only 'tale' I managed to overhear involved going back into a building for someone's false teeth ! And I do recall two of the Christmas parties given for the families.
Dad must have been popular and well liked in Perth although he seemed very quiet and unassuming. At his funeral in 1965 the crematorium was packed. It was years later that I realised how unusual that was.

Incidentally his stepfather died during WW one - by falling from a gate returning to barracks rather the worse for wear.

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