Archive: “People”

Photos from National Service

Eddie Edwards (?) and Ken Terry Read more »

The REME sergeant

Champ

This story is not funny, but simply serves to illustrate the diversity of human nature with which we all come into contact in our daily lives. It was September 1954 and I had been in Germany only three weeks when I was told that I was to be attached to the Medium Machine-Gun Platoon. This […]

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Supplementary rations

This incident also took place at Putlos and has given me a chuckle each time I recall it! The garages for our trucks were near one of the camp gates. Beside this gate was a house, the back garden of which was accessible from the camp. I was with my truck one morning when I […]

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The provost sergeant, “Queenie” and the football supporter

Cookhouse

The Battalion Provost Sergeant was an Irishman who went by the name of Paddy Hannafin. It is true to say that he was an even more unpleasant and unpopular man than one could reasonably expect, even of the Battalion’s policeman. Although I never heard it for myself, his greatest claim to fame was his instruction […]

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A few anecdotes from my working life

On my return to civilian life I tried a variety of occupations, with varying degrees of satisfaction, either to myself or to my erstwhile employer. — Firstly, a couple of tales from my time as a conductor for London Transport. The first of these occurred one afternoon at Petts Wood, a very affluent and, to […]

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A disturbing incident

It was an evening in late summer in about 1961, possibly a year either side. I lived in Halstead, a village between Orpington and Sevenoaks, lying just off what was then the A21, the London to Hastings road. I had, as transport, an ancient BSA M20 motorcycle and sidecar. It was not unusual for this […]

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Just what you need

A couple of years ago my wife, Susan and I drove to Maidstone Hospital where my daughter Sarah had an out-patient appointment. The hospital was undergoing building extension works and car parking was ‘difficult’. Having driven around the car park at the front of the hospital several times without finding a space I went to […]

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Locked out

The first incident of which I shall tell you took place in the 1970s. We lived on a small private development in Tunbridge Wells, which consisted of a mix of three-storey townhouses and flats, which were also arranged in three-storey buildings. This was a co-ownership scheme and the developers employed two men to take care […]

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Mad Dan

Just outside Dormansland, in Surrey is a large pile which rejoices in the name of Greathed (pronounced Greathead) Manor. This place houses retired people from such walks of life as the military, the diplomatic service and similar. They are all of a type and mostly slightly dotty. In the mid-60s I used to take my […]

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Now what have I said?

When I first took on the job of driving the Surrey travelling library, I found myself working alongside a chap called Bill Strahan. He was a very conscientious man and went on to greater things in the library world. I was replacing in the driving seat a man with whom Bill had not got along […]

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