大象传媒

I was born in March 1940, near Deal in Kent, where my father was a major in the Roayl Marines. when I was two months old, my father was transferred to the Marine base at Lympstone, near Exmouth, where we lived for the rest of the war and in fact into the fifties.

My mother referred to me humourously as @her war work@. Apart from the war it was an idyllic childhood. My parents rented a house with a large garden, where we grew fruit and vegetables and kept up to about 20 chickens. We thus had fresh eggs for ourselves and were allowed to see the surplus to neighbours.

The main attraction in the summer was the beautiful sandy beach. Because of the war, it was closed off with barbed wire and protected against enemy landings by @tank traps@ (like scaffolding) below the high water mark. Nevertheless, my mother and her friends used to creep with their young children through a gap in the barbed wire and we spent many happy afternoons on the beach! There were no tourists to speak of, so the locals had the beach to themselves.

At home I remember our Morrison "table" shelter and my "Mickey Mouse" gas mask - blue and red with a floppy nose. There was some bombe damage in Exmouth. I was told an unexploded bomb landed in the raod outside our house, and we had to creep very quietly past it until it was disposed of. We also had some minor damage to our windows but these could not be properly repaired until the war was over.

My father was always very proud of planting the roses at Lympstone Camp - time for gardening even during a war! (I wonder if they or their successors are still there). He was then appointed to command Dalditch Camp on Woodbury Common nearby - a job he did not particularly enjoy! He retired at the end of the war with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

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