Dad was born in Lewisham in 1902 to a baker father and a grumpy mother, only just post the Victorian age. His was a life almost impossible to envisage these days and it gave him a demeanour difficult to love until properly understood.
Understanding came later when, in his late 80s, he wrote his memoirs entitled “From Town Crier to Fax”
His father died prematurely after siring half a dozen siblings so, as the family’s only surviving breadwinner, this left my father, as eldest child at the tender age of 18, with the responsibility of feeding the family and raising his six younger siblings on a princely wage of fifteen shillings a week.
The family were offered, by his mother’s relatives, accommodation in an old, dilapidated army hut lacking hearing, sanitation, light, sink, water or gas. Water was obtained from a farm a quarter of a mile away. By hand.
Thus commenced a lengthy period of gradually improving work of many differing kinds until his siblings were off his hands. Toil and trouble his lot.
His endeavours included driving a Diamond T lorry and trailer to collect sheep from Welsh hill farms, shovelling ash or sand and gravel into and out of lorries 3 cubic yards at a time or hand stacking and unloading Flitton bricks from yet more lorries.
Assorted driving jobs later, he fell in with a chap keen to acquire and run a garage in Hounslow on a busy road. This came to pass and after much labour this partnership turned into a successful enterprise.
He had become a member of the Legion of Frontiersmen involving horse riding and assorted semi military training. He became a crack shot earning various medals, even at Bisley.
The Legion held monthly dances and there he met my mum. Love at first sight and soon married. That was 1935 and dark clouds were already looming.
More driving jobs followed departure from the garage leading to more adventures and assorted injuries and then some respite as a travelling salesman.
Then came World War II.
He joined a Ministry of Labour scheme for Engineering Instructors, learnt mathematics in detail and ended up training R.E.M.E. and E.R.A. personnel. He joined the Home Guard and spent many nights digging out survivors of the bombing.
After the War he joined assorted engineering companies, once appearing on TV when he invented a gismo to improve a vice.
This was a man who had truly dragged himself up by his own bootstraps
In 1953 he partnered with 2 others in cutting records for the burgeoning music industry.
From there he and mum took over a shop in Hounslow and started to sell the new vinyl records – 78rpm, 45rpm and 33rpm.
Dad knew little of music but mum did having a history of singing with her sister playing the piano. She even won Spot the Tune.
The record shop, called “Memrydiscs”,was a tremendous success, always busy. Dad started a stylus repair clinic, also very busy.
The Beatles came along and made their modest fortune.
Eventually tiring of the constant effort they sold the shop and pursued their dream of emigrating to New Zealand complete with my sister and her 2 daughters after her divorce.
Mum and dad helped to bring up my nieces so that was the third family he’d nurtured.
Although remaining in England to pursue my legal career I visited them as often as I could. My sister remarried very happily.
And they all lived happily after.
Foootsoldier Says… 