Category: Pre-WW2

I was on board a corvette in Belfast Harbour; while repairing a set and talking to the wireless operator, an officer stuck his head into the office and said “Williams…” and then he stopped. “I thought you were Williams, ” he said, “You sound just like him.” I smiled, he left and I got on… Continue reading Pre WW2, 1930 t0 39, How Schools Mould Character

Oxbridge and ex-Public School staff ran our school on Public School lines – as closely as one could for a day school. We had PT every day, vaulting over boxes, doing running somersaults, walking the high beam and everything one can imagine doing in a fully equipped gymnasium, including a shower afterwards. We played seasonal… Continue reading Pre WW2, 1930 to 39, in order, The Secondary School 1

The Bizarre World Of The Hospital There was one accident which outshone all the rest, it was spectacular, it was predictable and it might have been my fault – concussed I never really found out, I had just sold my cycle and bought another one, once again for a pound, another second-hand one which was… Continue reading Pre WW2,1930 to ’39, in order, The Era of Cycle Accidents 2

I often wonder if young people, with shiny new degrees lecturing us on TV, in dictatorial terms, with such conviction, have really had any experience of the problems they are allegedly solving. I have met a number of those problems head on, at a time when they were not thought to be so. From the… Continue reading Sex and Child Abuse Pre WW2

I don’t think I ever met anyone, outside of a professional cyclist, who had more accidents within a year than I did and most of them were not my fault – hand on heart! I was about fourteen when I bought my first bicycle and that I’m sure was mainly to save money on tram… Continue reading Pre WW2,1930 to ’39, in order,The era of cycle accidents 1

To most boys coming from my background, religion was a means to an end rather than an end in itself. It was an entre into the Scouting Movement, which, was church affiliated, offered bun fights and picnics’ in lieu of TV On cold wet winter evenings, apart from the Cubs and Scouts, there was the… Continue reading Pre WW2, 1930 to ’39, in order, A brush with Religion

Throw art y’moldies! This was the period when people went everywhere in charabancs, those overblown, single-deck buses with their thin tyres and great over-hang at the back. Derby Day, early in June, was a great outing in our part of South London, especially as it was on the route directly to Epsom Downs. There was… Continue reading Pre WW2, 1930 to ’39 im order, Bits and Pieces

My mother, Willie, was always inventive and resourceful and was consequently a horder. Unfortunately she passed the latter tendency on to me and I own a choked workshop to prove it. It was my first scout camp, I had only left the Cubs and been promoted to the Scouts in the late Autumn and here… Continue reading Pre WW2, 1930 to 39, in order,Scouting and The bottle Of Almonds

What sparked this off was the difference between the toys of my grandchildren and great grandchildren. The quantity, the quality of design, the variety of textures made me look back on the past. Not only that, as we needed some toys in the house for when they visited, we were amazed at how cheaply the… Continue reading Pre WW2, 1930 to ’39, The Games Children Used T Play

Latchkey Children As one who was the child of a single parent family and have survived unscathed, I find among commentators, politicians and some of the general public, a level of ignorance and misunderstanding which can malign both the parent and the child In the past, with extended families and no artificial insemination, there was… Continue reading Pre WW2, 1930 to ’39, in order,The Single Parent Family