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Arthur Hill was born on the 2nd July 1922, in the Manor Arms, a pub in Barnes, West London.
He was the only son of Arthur Hector and Gladys Nellie Hill.

He left school at fifteen years of age, and had a number of jobs before training as a welder. At the age of twenty-one, he was called up, and enlisted in the Royal marines on 21st January 1943.

On 24th April that year, he married his sweetheart, Caroline Louisa Rawlings. They had met at the wedding of her brother Fred, who was a work-mate of Arthur’s at J. E. Lyons. She was just seventeen.

After training as a Stoker/Driver on landing craft, he took part in the D-day landings and served in Europe. He was released from the service on 19th July 1946.

He spent the rest of his working life as a welder, the last twenty years or so at J. & E. Halls, Dartford.

He and Caroline had three children, Maureen, Brian and Pauline.

Arthur was a real Mr. Fixit, and having grown up in an era when money was tight, if he couldn’t afford something he wanted, he would make it himself ! And if something was broken, then he would repair it — sometimes to the exasperation of Carrie ! He had an artist’s eye for line and style, and designed and built his own sidecar , and furniture too.

He took up various hobbies over the years: tape recording with a high-quality Brenell reel-to-reel machine, photography including developing and printing, wine making and engraving.

Needless to say, he built his own hi-fi speakers, darkroom equipment, wine racks etc. The couple also joined a dancing school for a period of time. On summer weekends for many years they went off with a packed lunch and the kids, to spectate at motorcycle grass-track racing events in Kent.

In the last few years of his life, Arthur was presented with a PC, and busied himself learning all about Windows. He sent regular e-mails to his daughter Pauline, who lived in Canada.

More importantly, he started writing little ‘episodes’, as he called them, about different events from his life. The result is this book, which contains all 46 of his stories. Even in the last week of his life, he was telling me that he had about another 50 to write, to bridge the gaps between those already completed.

Alas, he wasn’t able to do this, but at least he saw the first bound copy of this book, and I know that it pleased him greatly to know that his memoirs had been preserved in print.

Brian Hill