Armed Forces | Yesterday Remembered

Dear Sir, Your article on Maltese Buses in the November issue bought back many happy memories, as did the mention of The Gut. I was stationed there in the 1950s with 40 Commando Royal Marines at the St Andrews barracks. Most of the time we were off the island, either at the Troodos mountains in […]

More in The Gut

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Janet Toms got a grey wooden kangaroo for Christmas in 1942. The story behind it concerns Polish battleships, Cowes harbour, and great heroism. When it comes to regrets, I am definitely with Frank Sinatra rather than Edith Piaf; regrets, I have a few. Mostly they aren’t of the life-changing variety but from time to time […]

KANGAROO FOR CHRISTMAS

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My Grandfather was one of four sons, all of whom one way or another served their country during the First World War. My Grandfather, Ernest Edward Warneford, was in the Royal Flying Corps, although not as a flier, he had served his early military career as a Bandsman at Kneller Hall and as a […]

The Man who Bombed a Zeppelin

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I joined the Army in 1941, seeing action in France and Germany. After VJ day, being relatively young at 24,1 was posted to Egypt and Palestine in order to release men who had served many years abroad without home leave. And so I was able to join hundreds of other service personnel for a […]

Christmas in Bethlehem 1945

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NAAFI origins

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Ally Pally cadet

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During WWII, in I943,1 was a member of a Scout group in Tooting, London. Enjoyable though it was, it didn’t have the excitement of the various cadet forces. My friend and I thought of the Air Training Corps. We were a little below the minimum age to join but when we applied we must have […]

At the Granada, Tooting

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A special parade

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Joining in December, 1958, originally with 412 Squadron in Nottingham, I then transferred to 209 Squadron at Upnah House on Forest Road. After a few years, the building was handed over to the Girls’ High School and we moved to a new wooden hut at Gresham playing fields in West Bridgford which still exists today. […]

Once more with feeling

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Hanging on for dear life

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Present day ATC recruits are no doubt very keen but in the 1930s there was a tenseness and urgency that would be difficult to appreciate now. There was a very real threat of invasion and we all felt a strong need to do our bit for the war effort. In North Somercotes, on the Lincolnshire […]

My home from the air

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My Dad’s Army

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Steve Windsor was head over heels in love with downhill biking… BMX bicycles have come and gone… and come back again. It’s now quite common to see ‘Bicycle Motor Cross’ courses set up in park playgrounds. Many children now adopt the helmet, gauntlets, knee pads and other necessary equipment, and ride properly designed bikes. They […]

Scrambling down Barn Hill

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One night over Berlin

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In February, 1940, Dad received a phone call from ENSA summoning him to a meeting. We had been working for ENSA on and off since my dad created a comedy act with my brother and I in November, 1939. We were known as Tommy Jover with Nena and Raf. The government required people in show […]

Entertaining in wartime France…

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Treading the boards

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A Cockney voice from just along the row said: “Not exacdy the crahn jewels, are they?” The jewels’ in question were a pair of very basic cufflinks stamped out of some dubious-looking yellow metal – all part of the civilian kit being handed to each one of us in the middle of 1946 by a […]

Holiday in Bournemouth, 1946

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There Was a Soldier, a Scottish Soldier

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The Driving Test – 1950-style

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A ‘Trip’ to Remember!

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