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At Whitsun I went to Bournemouth on holiday with my Mum to stay with friends. I was 9 years old. One day we went to Hengistbury Head, I remember that we went part of the way by trolley bus. On the way back to Boscombe we were coming up the zigzag path and we spotted a man looking out to sea. He was dressed in uniform, but wearing carpet slippers! He was a high ranking French Army officer; standing rigidly to attention, staring out to sea and looking quite traumatised. (He looked a bit like de Gaulle.)

We travelled into Bournemouth where there were lots of French soldiers sitting about — they were very undisciplined. These soldiers had come over from Dunkirk, they had been offered to come to Great Britain from France and were quartered in local schools. I went to ask the soldiers for their autographs which I still have. Mother was excited as they were selling French dictionaries for 6d. They were very useful for talking to the soldiers. I still have the dictionary to this day.

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