大象传媒

EARLY DAYS

My recollections of childhood come back to me in a series of cameo sketches. My first home was in Leytonstone, a suburb in the East End of London.

My father owned a timber wharf in the London dock area of Old Ford which is a district in Bow.

I remember there were several areas to explore quite close to our house. The big attraction was an area of Epping Forest called the Hollow Pond. I think that the ponds were formed by an old area of gravel extraction, but they fascinated me and were the first area of water that I had experienced, and later led me to take an interest in fishing.

There were always rowing boats for hire on the pond and it was always my ambition to hire a boat and explore the many islands there were. It seemed to me then that the winters were very hard and I loved to play in the snow. My dad made me a toboggan which I took up to the Hollow Ponds and as there were lots of small hillocks I had a great time charging up and down them. There was one such occasion that I caused a major flap at home because I was so enjoying myself that I lost track of time, and arrived home about two hours late. They were just about to send out search parties for me. There were also many occasions when the pond was frozen over and the ice would be covered with skaters. even at night the cars would park around the pond and play their headlights on the surface of the ice so that the skaters could see. These events attracted many street vendors who brought barrows with braziers on and sold hot chestnuts and baked potatoes.

My fist school was a private one and involved me in what seemed a very long walk, it wasn鈥檛 long however before my fathers income dropped and I was quickly whipped away from the private school and sent to the local primary school. This came very hard to me as the discipline was very tough and different. Classes were all very strange and a different method of handwriting was taught. This was a major disaster for me as I have had very poor handwriting ever since and I am convinced that this change was the cause.

During the school holidays the trip I enjoyed most was a visit to my fathers timber wharf, he had a steam crane, a couple of barges and about six heavy horses, all of which I loved. There were many exotic timbers in the wharf, and I used to help in recording stocks on a tally sheet and felt very important. Another reason for enjoying these trips was that my fathers mother was living at a house attached to the wharf and usually gave me ten shillings which was a fortune to me then.

One of the other attractions at the wharf was the fact that there were quite a few rats around, and my father had a small shotgun and he allowed me to pop off at them whenever they appeared.

At this time we had a Sunbeam car this was an open top car and we used to go to Exmouth for the holidays. With the roads as they were then we used to get there very quickly compared to present road conditions. My main recollection of holidays in Exmouth is of being on the beach and the wind blowing stinging sand at my bare legs and into my eyes!

I was about nine years old when I contracted scarlet fever, this caused a major panic in the house because at this time it was a major illness and caused many deaths. I was confined to bed, and blankets soaked in disinfectant were hung over the door to the room I was in. I was not allowed any visitors except my parents and all in all it was a pretty miserable time. I remember a friend of mine coming to a window and trying to have a conversation through the glass.

It was while I was still suffering that my father had a mild heart attack, which was another disaster because cars didn鈥檛 have reliable self starters in those days, my father was told that it wouldn鈥檛 be wise to attempt to turn over the engine of the car with the starting handle because of the likely strain on his heart. So the car went, it finished up back at the wharf and when I went down there I often sat behind the wheel and imagined myself driving it. I was sad to watch it gradually disintegrate.

I was very keen to have a pet and my parents bought me a Wire-haired Fox Terrier, this was wonderful for me and we had great times together. I remember playing cricket in the garden one day with a hard ball and managed to knock him out. I was terrified seeing him lying there but he came round all right in the end. As he grew up he became adventurous and acquired a wanderlust, this took him over garden fences and he finished up miles away. My parents couldn鈥檛 stand this so he was whisked off to the wharf and allowed his freedom, he was in his element there because of the rats and he made a good rat catcher.

When I was about twelve years old my parents decided to move further out of London, and eventually bought a house in Chingford, we moved there in 1935. This move provided me with much more to explore, we were only about fifty yards from some woods which were my main escape and a heaven for tree climbing!

Of course the move meant a change of school, by this time I was at secondary school and having failed my eleven plus at out old house due to scarlet fever, I proceeded to study and qualify to go to a Technical school. I managed to do this and set off for the new school. This was about six miles away and involved a tram ride, which I enjoyed. The school was very good too, with the emphasis being on practical work. The school building was very old and after about two years, a new school was built which covered a bigger catchment area, it was huge and a new development in education. The facilities were very extensive with lots of workshops, a swimming pool and a big refectory. It was strange at first but we soon found our way around and enjoyed out stay there.

While the school was being built we had watched its progress with interest, and I had seen surveyors working with tapes and theodolites and decided that this was something that I would like to do. I talked to my parents about this and they agreed to let me stop on at the Tech, and take the Matriculation exam which would get me started in getting qualified. I had been studying for about a year when the Second War started. I finished the year out and because it seemed unlikely that I would be able to finish the course and take the exam before I was called up, decided to leave.

I wanted to go into the RAF and decided that until I was a bit older I would join the Civil Defence. In the meantime I went along to the RAF recruiting office to see if they would take me. I thought that something like Air Traffic Control would suit me, but the people there said why didnt I try for Aircrew, I really hadn鈥檛 given it a thought but the idea really appealed to me so I volunteered, so I had an interview and an extensive medical examination, all of which I passed OK. So I sat back in Civil Defence and waited to be called up.