Learning To Be A Soldier

The system of recruits’ training in 1938 meant that individuals, on enlisting, had to wait until sufficient numbers arrived to form into a squad of about twenty. Then the training really got started. The period of waiting was always referred to as being unsquadded’. When asked by an NCO or officer who you were, the […]

Lancing the Whitlow.

Strange how the cold weather always affected the first finger on my right hand, circulation seems to be the problem, the old man mused as he rubbed the finger to get rid of the numbness. Stranger still that it was only now after more than 70 years,that it was causing problems. Gazing down on the […]

Juvenile Poachers

The largest river in Wales, the River Severn, in the far off days of my youth, curled it’s lazy way through fields of Butter Cups and Daisies, it’s banks alternating between steep sides and sandy shores, from deep forbidding pools, to murmuring bubbling shallows, where cattle stood knee deep, cud chewing and their tails swishing […]

Joining The Regiment

Finally, after fifteen weeks of training, our little squad of recruits was pronounced fit enough to join the Regiment, then in residence at Albuhera Barracks, Aldershot. There we were fitted out with Busby, Red tunics, Greatcoats and white webbing, the traditional uniform of the Guards. The most difficult bit of new clothing was the traditional […]

It’s Not That I Don’t Like Cats…

It’s more like, well cats not liking me. I do like them and if they would just tolerate me, I would love to do the same for them. Having said that I suppose cat lovers everywhere will be yelling for my blood! First please allow me to put my thoughts and fears into some sort […]

It all turned out well

The elderly mailman shifted the weight of the mail bag onto his other shoulder, and walked slowly up the garden path, ignoring the growling mongrel dog, he knocked on the door of No.8 , opened it and walked through to the cosy kitchen, just as he did every day of his working week. “,Two letters […]

In The Beginning

The image of the Cup and Saucer tree dominated my early childhood. I was born in the village of Caersws in the county of Montgomeryshire on the 1st December 1919. My home was a small old black and white cottage in Bridge Streettoday. I remember little of this cottage. and is still lived in My […]

Foxed By Thought

Before explaining why I think animals ‘Think’, and my admiration for one animal, an old dog fox, it is necessary to set the scene, to make it easier to visualise his actions. The quiet and beautiful setting in the English Cotswolds, with its small fields, quiet country roads where stone walls replace hedges and fences, […]

Flying under Bridges, For Fun

The writing assignment for 24th Aug. would enable me to get ahead of my tasks,so i began to give it some thought. This s ent my butterfly mind wandering, task forgotten, i delved into researching stories of Wartime Pilots flying under bridges. I began with a familiar one from my days of living in the […]

Army Enlistment

On the 1st December 1937, reaching the age of 18 years, I became old enough to join the Army to commence the second phase of my life’s plan and start getting a better education.The recruiting sergeant at Newtown, a fat jovial Sergeant, seemed eager to sign me up! A 6ft 2in youth, weighing about 15 […]

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