Little is remembered, naturally, of my very early years but at some time around 1926 we moved to Mead Road, Chandlers Ford and it was there that I started school.

Exactly when I am not sure but probably 1928, at Junior school age we moved to a recently built council estate at Swaythling, namely Harefield Road. It was there that a year or so earlier Dad's brother Bill, Auntie Dorrie and cousin Les had moved to.. I was to reside there, attending Swaythling Junior and Swaythling Senior Schools and doing a number of mundane and hardly career advancing jobs until joining the RAF on the 6th of January 1941.

Early Days: Schools and Teachers.

We all of us I suppose remember the oddest things in our lives with no apparent rhyme or reason. My teacher at the Infant School in Chandlers Ford was Miss Bennett who's boy friend (sic)had a Morgan three wheeler. I remember her Perfume to this day.

I caught Diptherea at the age of six but was not hospitalised although all my teddies and books etc were destroyed because of infection. It was not until many years later the we discovered it had not been necessary.

Mead Road was what was called unadopted and therefore gravelly and full of large potholes into one of which I fell while showing off on my first bicycle. Soaked to the skin I was undressed by my mother in front of the kitchen range much to my embarrasment and the glee of two girls from next door. The bicycle, incidentally was an Allday and Onion. makers of all Post Office bikes in those days.

A large meadow with reeds and bullrushes extended all the way up the road to the school and was the center of learning for the young members of Chandlers Ford Infants School.

For some unknown reason I have few memories of my Junior School days at Swaythling. The Headmaster, Mr.McGovern I remember well having palled up with his son John and therefore going to the Heads house for tea. Brownnosing I think it's called these days. However, memories of the Senior School are very strong even down to remembering the names of the teachers.

Before comimg to that however, above is a school photo from my last year at Junior School. Some I remember vividly, Jim Veck, Roy Faithful, Bertie Colborn, Ken Thorn, and Joe White. Also there were those who's names I remember but cannot pick out, Ken McLachlan, Binnie Barns, Ken Lavender, Nigel Spackman, ? Parks and ? Jenks. As for me............four eyes in the front row.

The Senior school was recently built and by the standards of the day was exceptional. Built in a U shape it housed the girls wing on one side of the U and the boys wing on the other with the school hall forming the base of the U. The class rooms on the ground floor all had folding ceiling height doors that opened up onto the tarmac playground and the upper floor comprised a lab for the boys and cooking for the girls. An extra classroom was also on the upper floor. Something I shall come to later.

Unlike today, the Masters were more mature, our youngest being Mr (Ginger) Roderick, probably in his late twenties.

Headmaster, Mr.Crickmore, Deputy Head, Mr.Gadd, thence Mr.(Pop) Ealing, Mr.Cooper, Mr.Gibbons, Mr.DeGrouche ,Mr.(Pegeleg)Leburn and Mr.Pilley.

In those days, of course, teachers came to classrooms and not classrooms to teachers so we all had our own desks and didn't have to lug half a hundred weight of stuff back and forth everyday. Therefore, our journies to school and back were joyfully filled with tops, hoops, fagcards and leapfrog. Also a quick stop off at Ma Osbornes corner shop for a Gobstopper or Sherbert Dab.

Similar to any education system the classes were divided into two streams, e.g. 4A 4B 3A 3B etc and surprisingly for those days, although the school leaving age was 14 we actually had a remove, 1L for the final terms. Anyone of course passing their scholarship moved on to Grammar School. (I didn't).

As for school mates, staunch to the end and very competitive were Ken McLachlen whose parents ran a Habadashery in Broadlands Road and were very Salvation Army, Roy (faceache) Faithful whose father was a one armed bellringer at St. Marys Church. Roy also rang and talked me into going once. After feeling sick climbing the spiral staircase and 'going up with the pussy' I never ventured there again, and finally there was John Cook whose father as I mention later was Manager of Jersey Airways

After leaving school, as is so often the case, we slowly drifted apart. Ken disowned me when he saw me smoking a fag (Sally Ann of course), Cookie I think moved to Jersey and as for Roy, I really can't remember..

Coming back to Mr. Pilley for a moment, for the lesser talented there was also Class 2C, nicknamed "the gardening class" which it was poor old Pilly's misfortune to inherit. The classroom was the one upstairs and I have vivid memories of one who shall remain nameless letting off a stinkbomb on the stairs outside of his classroom on the way to the Lab in my last term. Those were the days.

Just a quick footnote on the school. Who remembers leapfrogging five sections of the vaulting box onto a coconut matting?, or getting the cane on yer finger tips?.

Early Days: Family Life.

Fortunately Dad had a secure job with the GPO having started as a Messenger boy from school and returning after the Great War so we were relatively unaffected by the days of the depression. Annual holidays were normally taken at Ryde in the Isle of Wight or Weston-Super-Mare, Dawlish or Teignmouth and frequently shared with my cousin Les and family, both of us by the way, being only children.

The days, of course of Paddle Steamers and when trains were known by the Livery and Engines had "Class" .

Entertainment was "home made" and in the absence of sports fields our playground was the street. Our natural enemy was the local bobby, in this particular instance, P.C. Ash whose appearance at the bottom of the street, appearing enormous on a puny bicycle, meant the immediate departure of footballs, cricket bats and the games participants. Also, as is still true to this day, certain residents took umbrage at having footballs kicked into their front gardens or cricket balls bouncing off their windows so the phrase "please Mister can we have our ball back" was invented and is still in use today. Let it be noted though that bad attitudes were remembered and retribution exacted by "knocking on doors" or tying door knobs together with next door.

Cigarette cards were an essential part of our education and the source of games and collection. Considerable time was spent outside of tobacconists asking purchasers for there "fag cards". The days of "Players", "Capstan", "Goldflake, "Stars", "Woodbines and "Weights". I never forgave an Uncle of mine who smoked twenty "Black Cats" a day, one of the few brands that never had cards. And less I forget, "Kensitas" and the silk flags of all nations. Just a few examples of 'fag cards', which, as the suppliers ruined there lungs, we added a wide range of subjects to our education from "Households Hints" through "British Kings" to "Military Headwear", to almost any subject under the sun. It was hoped that after the war production would be continued but the Government decided to put a tax on them so the cigarette companies destroyed their stocks.

Also, untenable as it may be in the present day, we collected Birds Eggs.

"Going to the Pictures" did of course play a large part in the field of entertainment although singing around the piano to pages of sheet music was still popular in the houses of people who could afford a piano. The picture houses in Southampton that I remember most through the late twenties and early thirties were "The Gaiety", The "Empire" and "The Palladium" at Portswood. I seem to remember there being one in East Street, maybe the oldest, which for the life of me I can't remember the name of, and of course the "Lyric" also at Portswood, which showed the "tuppeny rush" on a Saturday morning. Dare I mention the names of Pearl White, Tom Mix, Buck Jones, Harry Carey, Hoot Gibson, Tom Tyler, Hopalong Cassidy et al.

My first visit to the pictures was with Mum and Dad at I think the tender age of four, or maybe five, 1926/27, to see the first talkie at the "Gaiety". Al Jolson in either "the Jazz Singer" ot "The Singing Fool". I cried halfway through and we left, which leaves me now among a rare group of Film goers who "Saw it (or nearly) saw it when it first came out", and , of course as I became older the practice of standing outside the Cinema showing "A" films and proffering yer tanner to whoever with the plea "Please Mister, take us in".

Perhaps one of the most infuential factors in life those days was the Tramcar. One either walked, cycled or "Took a Tram". The one below is located at Crich Tram Museum.

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Always "another one along in 5 minutes" so walking between stops was the order of the day in our family. If you just missed one, we walked to the next stop.If one came while we were walking, we walked to the next and often wound up eventually walking into town anyway. A penny was the fare, No Smoking down stairs and no standing upstairs. Upstairs at" going home time" was smoke bound.

Riding on a tram was unlike any other travelling experience you are ever likely to have. There is no comparison between those at Blackpool or Sheffield today. Iron wheels on steel rails and metal studded floors. The seats were wooden slatted and hinged so that when the tram reached the terminus they could be reversed to face forward as the tram never turned round. The Trolley was pulled down on a rope and replaced on the Electric cable facing the other way. No front or back to a tram. Heavy leaf springs were the only suspension so comfort was at a minimum.

The Avenue from Bassett to the town was a downward slope for a good mile so if a driver was a bit behind time and had no stops on the way he would wind the brass handle (throttle) wide open and the tram would career down the Avenue swaying like a tree in a gale to the screeching of metal on metal and we passengers clinging to the seat in front for dear life..........to my knowledge no tram ever left the rails and conductors needed sea legs...............'any more fares please'.

If I remember correctly, No.108 was the last built and No.45 stands in the Crich Tram museum.

Anyone from Chesterfield because this double decker is one of yours:

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Early Days: Highlights.

My first flight in an Avro 504 at Ryde at the age of ten. Five bob round the airfield.

Avro 504 K.

Cycling regularly to Lee-on-Solent to watch the Fairey IIIFs being rolled down the slipway

Fairey III F.

A visit aboard the S.S. Olympic, at that time the largest liner afloat.

RMS Olympic:

. A rather vague memory of the last Schneider Trophy race

Supermarine S6B.

The priviledge of being allowed into Southampton Aerodrome on a regular basis to watch the development of the Spitfire. This, thanks to a school mate John Cook who's father was Manager of Jersey Airways which incidentally flew DH 86 and DH Rapide aircraft. The one illustrated is the DH86 "Express Airliner".

D.H.86 'Express Airliner'

Fying from Ryde to Southampton in an Airspeed Courier .

Airspeed Courier.

Maiden voyage of the Queen Mary

R.M.S. Queen Mary

Opening of the Ice Rink

Drinking my first Coca Cola at the Ice Rink

Watching Speedway in the days of Jack Parker, 'Bluey' Wilkinson and Eric Chitty.

.Winkleing on the foreshore and Chestnutting at Burseldon.

Opening of the new Sports Center with cycle track at Bassett.

Building of the "New Docks".

Opening of the Flying Boat Terminal for the "C" Class Boats

'C' Class 'Empire' Flying Boat

Building of the Civic Centre. Referred to by some (my Grandfather included) as Kimbers Folly

.The visit of the Zepplin "Hindenburg" photographing all future targets in 1939.

The Zeppelin 'Hindenburg'.

A Handley Page 42 landing at So'ton because Croydon was fogbound.

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Handley Page 42 'Horatio'.

.The introduction of Floodlights at the Airport. (Grass field of course)

The building of "Central Station"

.The birth of my brother Michael in September 1934

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From the Leaving of School:

Dad, in his position in the Post Office, made many connections and through what is now known as the "old boy" network manage to wangle me a job at Supermarine Woolston.

My ambitions and interests as a child had always been towards Art and Aircraft. I'd been aircraft mad since about the age if five so Draughtsmanship was my assumed goal at that time.

Small, timid, and an only child, with my lunch and a couple of bob in my pocket I cycled across Cobden Bridge and thence to Woolston and the looming formidable site of " VICKERS SUPERMARINE".

Memories here are a bit vague and probably repressed because of the experience. I was taken into this vast workshop and intoduced to Mr Abbot the foreman who presented me with a file and a template, led me to a bench with a vice and a pile of square metal plates, found a box for me to stand on because I couldn't reach the bench, told me to clamp a metal plate and template into the vice, file the plate to match the template, told me that if I filed the template I'd be in big trouble, then left.

At lunch time I sat in the canteen on my own surrounded by big men, overawed and helpless. I filed throughout the afternoon, clocked out at five o'clock never to return..............failed career move No.1.

Next to Bassett Garage, serving petrol and washing cars etc. In those days the regular pay for 14 year olds started at ten bob and went up in increments of half-a-crown. Petrol cost from 1/1d to 1/3d a gallon and unfortunately for me I was selling National at 1/1d when it should have been 1/3d. So...........................!

"WEIR ENGINEERING" at Redbridge require a boy in the steel stores. Got the job and did well. Was offered an apprenticeship as a Miller, Jigborer or Turner in a firm that had the best machines and imported labour to go with them from Sweden.

Turned it down................Bad career decision No.2.

"PARSONS GARAGE' on the Town Quay requires junior for office. Got the Job.

It was a bit of a dodgy area for young lads in those days but leaving school at 14 did mean that we became "street wise" pretty quickly and were well looked after, and disciplined by older men.

At WIER I learned about steel and nuts, bolts, washers, threads. At PARSONS I learned about Ledgers and Invoices and also about charging the right price for petrol.

It was a prestigious garage in those days, with a workshop with belt driven lathes and machinery, run by a one eyed engineer "Pop" Beecham and his son Bert.. John Brown was the Manager and George Rowe the pump attendant. As a Junior I was also expected to serve petrol, top up oil and radiators and wash cars.

Being on the Town Quay meant were in the the best place for visiting dignitaries who partied on the Yachts or travelled to the I.O.W. Hence I had the priviledge of washing the cars of, Sir Malcolm Campbell, Donald Campbell, Sir Claude Graham-White and Tom Sopwith.

It was a good job and I enjoyed it particularly the big tips from the Posh guys..................incidentally one of my school mates, Tommy Tit was a "bell hop" on the Queen Mary at this time so my "tips" were peanuts compared to what he got.....................however when War broke out I felt the need to do something more productive so I left Parsons and got a job at FOSTER WIKNER AIRCRAFT at the Airport. I also joined the LDV and the ARP.

link to Blitz Days

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