大象传媒

I was born at Cutlers Green Thaxted Essex on 21st. February 1932. At the age of four and a half I attended the Thaxted County Council School. At the age of eight I witnessed a German plane crash (please see my 'A Second World War Story) and due to the horrific experience lost almost a year of my junior education. I failed the eleven plus grammer school exam. My parents put this down to the fact I lost a year of schooling - I put it down to being 'thick'!!
However I was fortunate to sit an entrance exam for The Mid-Essex Technical Colledge and School of Art and commenced my secondry education at the age of 13. I had to leave home at ten past seven in the morning and cycle to Dunmow (six and a half miles- exactly- up and down several hills) winter and summer alike!! From Dumow I boarded a Hicks bus arriving at school at 8.40am. The return journey meant boarding the bus at 4.40 (cannot remember what time we arrived at Dunmow) getting on my bike arriving home 6.10/15pm. - and then after tea had two hours homework to complete!! It was a year before The Reverend Jack Putterill managed to convince the local authorities to put on a bus service from Thaxted to Dunmow, although I still had to leave home at 7.15 and not return until 6pm. At the age of 14 I was fortunate enough to visit Holland (through the World Friendship - Exchange Holliday - Oganisation) with other members of the 'Tech. I think we were among the first to take part in this holiday exchange scheme so soon after the war. The family I stayed with took me all over Holland and I saw many war grave cemeteries and the devastation at Arnhem.
The following year with members of the 'Tec and Chelmsford Grammar School for Girls we (again with the WFA) boarded the HM Warterman - an old troopship carrier bound for Oslo Norway on a three week holiday. Three days before our return I became ill with 'polio. I spent almost two months in hospital and a month convalescing before returning home. I was to be flown home but the WFA were bankrupt by this time and I had to board a train in Oslo to Bergen - from Bergen a ferry to Newcastle and then by train to London (where my parents met me - mum and dad just could not afford to visit me in Norway). This was a terrific adventure for a 15 year old boy in 1947 but I suppose for a youth of 15 in 2004 it would be regarded as 'just a day out in the park'!!

I was late starting the new term at the 'Tec but to my surprise I had, in my absence, been appointed 'Head Boy'

On one day during the bus trip from Dunmow to Chelmsford sitting on the upper deck travelling along Broomfield Road I saw this most beautiful girl in uniform walking toward the girls grammar school. I desperately wanted to meet her. The next day I cut a rose from the garden and pinned a note to it saying 'You are stunningly beautiful could I please have a date with you'. The following day as the bus travelled along Broomfield road - there she was - I threw the rose from the window - it landed just inches in front of her. She picked it up and looked at the bus from which I was waving - everyone on the bus cheered. The next day she was waiting for the bus to pass waving to acknowlede my note and mouthing she wanted to meet me. We eventually dated and went to the cinema. From the news reel she began to cry and did so for most of the time we were on our date. I discovered that part of the news reel related to something to do with the war and this reminded her of the fact that her only brother had been killed on one of the last raids on Germany. We never met again and to this day feel guilty that I did not show more sympathy and even more guilty that I cannot remember her name - two years ago I 'phoned Radio Essex relating this story to Steve Scruton and Angela Lodge for help in tracing this 'girl'-to no avail - can anyone else help??
I sat the Oxford enrance exam (matriculation - six subjects) but failed maths - proving how thick I was!! So from the 'Tec I spent a year at Writtle Agricultural College,
From 1950 to 1952 I served with the RAF Police as a National Servicman - stationed at Padgate, Melksham, Pershore, Waterbeach, Portlethin and West Prawle.
On 'demob I joined the Milk Marketing Board and became an 'Artificial Inseminator' a job I did for seven years and where I met Carole, my wife to be, who was a receptionist at one of the sub-centres.
From 1960 to 1972 I worked for Beecham Foods, Gillette, Vileda, Warner Lambert, Drakes Sweets-a division of Geo. Bassett in various selling and management positions. In 1972 I joined Stafford -Miller (manufacturers of Sensodyne Toothpaste) and for thirteen years served as their National Sales Manager until my early retirement in 1994 at the age of 62. Carole and I have lived in Linconshire, Yorkshire,and Cambrigeshire, finally settling (on retirement )in Clacton on Sea, Essex, my county of birth - one could say that I have come home to rest!
Interests include amateur dramatics,DIY,travelling abroad and UK, photograhpy, gardening (our garden was featured in an Anglia TV production 'Inside and Out'July 2000 - I also had the pleasure of featuring in another Anlia TV production 'Going Home'Sept.2003 - a really emotional experience) and now since we do not have a garden the computer - which seems to have has taken over our lives - but we love living in an apartment on the sea front a hundred feet above sea-level. I suppose my next move will be to the Essex Wild Life Green Burial ground at Rabness but hope that does not happen for some years to come!!