THE COVENANTER
woods outside the town, coming back and staff will comfort me’. I didn’t know
loaded with wood and pulling a large then how true it was to become in 1944-45.
branch that we cut up into logs with an old The only large difference at the time was no
rusty saw. rod or staff. My comfort was my rifle,
Education
bayonet, steel helmet and spade. It must
At the age of five years I started at the
have resembled the valley of Hell, shrapnel
Infants School, very basic I remember, more
exploding, and tearing limbs from bodies.
like a nursery - a lot of playtimes. One thing
Fate had thrown us humans together and
we did learn was discipline. In those days
into the valleys of Hell, because that’s the
the rule was children were ‘seen but not
only way to describe what it was like to be
heard’. One thing I do remember learning
an infantryman at the front of the battle,
was how to lace up my shoes and how to tie
his ranks and comrades decreasing, as the
a bow. If you made too much noise or got
shelling and bullets took their toll. Try to
up to any mischief, a slap on the top of the
forget it, but I find the only way to express
legs was permissible.
myself is through writing about it. If told
Then on reaching the age of seven years,
verbally it sounds as if you are glorifying,
I transferred to what we called the ‘big boys’
but there is no glory, just the plain facts.
school. The discipline here was ruled by the
The things and sights that entered the
cane, standing out in the front of the class
mind, some fifty to sixty years ago, are still
holding your arm at full stretch, palms up,
there and move vividly placed in greater
the teacher swiped his bamboo cane down
context. Is it right to write this under the
hard on your upturned hand, one, two, or
heading of Religion? Draw your own
sometimes up to four strokes. A sharp pain
conclusion.
and a tingling sensation, clenching the fist
and grinding your teeth returning to your
Conscription into the Army.
desk. The thing was not to express your
1943
feelings by crying, with the rest of the class
watching. We learnt to read, write with an
It was broadcast over the wireless (radio)
ink well and a pen with a bent nib. This
and in the newspapers that all males born
often resulted in making an ink blot or two.
between a certain age group (I being one of
The end product for this, though it was no
them) will register for military service.
fault of your own, was two stripes with the
At the age of seventeen, nearly eighteen
cane. Sums we were taught, but we never
as ordered, I reported to the local Labour
reached the stage of mathematics.
Exchange (Job Centre) together with most
I did move to a newly built school at the
of the class that had left school with me
age of thirteen and a half years, teaching us
aged fourteen years in 1939, a month before
gardening, woodwork and art, which I
the outbreak of this war.
found more interesting. But we all still got
We never then thought that we would
the cane. Very few in those days could say
ever be old enough to fight in it. As for
they enjoyed their schooldays.
some of them, the names on the local
cenotaph now sadly remind us.
Religion
Before my eighteenth birthday, 3rd May
There were many churches and chapels
1943, I had had my medical at Exeter,
in the smallish town in those days, all very
surprisingly passing A1. About 12th May
well patronised. Sunday was as preached, ‘a
1943, my call-up papers arrived by post. I
day of rest’. We were all brought up as
was to report to Goojerat Barracks,
Church of England ( C of Es ), Father being
Colchester, Essex, on 20th May.
of a strong Christian family and C of E, but
The war had been going on for about
he did turn during the coming war years
three years and eight months. The
and after to Spiritualism, and it must be said
Americans (Yanks) had joined us. North
that some of the things he predicted,
Africa had been cleared.
through his so called Spirit guide and the
I left my butcher boy’s job and my carrier
tea leaves, left food for thought and were
bike, handed in my Home Guard
later authenticated.
equipment rifle and bayonet that had been
It was Sunday school on Sunday
my main comfort for the past two years,
afternoons for us kids. At a very young age I
when every fourth night we stood on the
remember repeating time after time ‘Yea,
cliffs in all weathers waiting for the
though I walk through the valley of the
expected invasion from across the English
shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. My rod
Channel that stretched out in front of us.
36
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