I meant to write more about this when I posted it but Computer was being twitchy. My grandfather worked briefly as a junior reporter in between leaving school and volunteering for the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. Two of his great friends from school were killed in France whilst he was in hospital here. I don't know the name of the paper or the date of publication. I include the article in the 1940 section because of it's interestingly naive tone and obviously because of the family connection. Grandpa went on to spend another 12 years or so in the army, serving with 45 Recce in India and Burma, with the Parachute regiment in India, with the Royal west African Frontier Force in Nigeria and then ending up back with the DWR in Germany. When he wrote this AFAIK his sister was living in Canada with the rest of her evacuated school.
He's a very fine writer Ethan. He strikes me as the kind of person who wouldn't feel fulfilled unless he put pen to paper on a regular basis. Regards ...
Ethan. A very fine piece of writing by your Grandfather. Did he return to work on newspapers? It is a privilege to read it and thank you for putting it up on the Forum, evoking memories of those distant years and reminding Veterans accustomed to Army blankets of the joy of sleeping between sheets. I recall two such joyous occasions, the first when I was a Corporal attached to the RAF to train the first echelons of the RAF Regiment and was at Waterbeach Airfield near Cambridge; not only sheets but 'choice' of courses at mealtimes! The second occasion was on a recce patrol in Walcheren in 1944 and was marooned in flood water and rescued by the Dutch Resistance and had to wait for a few hours before we could be guided back by them to Flushing which necessitated crossing a gap made by the RAF in the dyke through which was pouring sea water from the Scheldt Estuary. Those few hours were spent in a bed at the top of this Dutch house and kipping for a few hours in a bed with beautifully clean linen sheets then being woken just before daylight was breaking and donning my smelly battledress still with the mud from landing on Flushing's 'tip' when we disembarked from the assault landing craft. An ode to sheets . . . but Ethan your Grandfather wrote a very fine evocative piece of those early days of the Second World War and deserves a place in this Forum. Regards, Joe Brown.
Many thanks for the interest; Newspapers were a family business for my grandfather's people at this time, but as far as I know he never went back to them after he got out of the army in the 50's. He had several different jobs and found it quite hard adjusting, especially in terms of managing family finances. Eventually he got a job for a firm that sold agricultural supplies to wholesalers and farmers, and he worked there until he retired in 1985. I don't have any group photos of his DWR days in 39-41, though I have been looking online for photos I haven't had any luck yet. His father was in the same regiment in WW1.
