Ode to Ann and Harry

In August 1940, I was transferred to Dorset to operate the search lights used in Battle of Britain and blitz to light up enemy bombers. I stayed in Dorset for four years. There at a dance I met my future wife. She was a farmer’s daughter and she taught in a local infants school.

She was in digs and not long after I met her, I was walking her home and she said she was unhappy to hear that I had a wife and two kids in Brum. One of my friends had played a joke; luckily I persuaded her that I was single. We married in April 1942.

In 1942 I joined Birchfield Harriers. I was leading in a race, a cross-country race. The officers used to bet on the men. Two men had cheated by cutting across the field but luckily I beat them. I attended the 1948 Olympic trials.

This Ode is dedicated to my wife and to out shared memories of those days:

In the beautiful county of Dorset
There’s a giant that’s carved in the hill
It was there in the war — 1940s
That a lovely young ‘gal’ said, “I will”

They had met at a dance in Cerne Abbas
Arranged for the troops, don’t you know?
And soon they were dancing together
A quick step, a waltz or tango

He was a young lad in the army
And stationed up there on the hill
While she lived down there in the village
And taught in a school near the mill

Now Ann was a farmer’s daughter
Who had lived at Church Farm all her life,
But Harry, he came from the city
A Birmingham lad — and no wife!

One day from Church Farm they went walking
To her Gran’s, who lived four miles away
Gran gave him two glasses of dandelion wine
And what happened next, I can’t say!

As they walked home together that evening
Ann said in a voice tinged with sorrow
Granny said, “You must watch out for soldiers
Here today, but gone by tomorrow!”

Now Ann was a very keen cyclist
With a bike, “Golden Arrow” — three gears
While I had an old army model
It had been in service for years!

But “H” was a long distance runner
And kept pretty fit, don’t you know
When she cycled in shorts in the summer
It made his adrenalin flow!

One weekend he had two days leave
So off to Lyme Regis they sped
Uphill and down dale did they cycle
Arrived there and asked for a bed

The landlady said quite severely
“I must ask if you two are wed?”
“Engaged, but not wed,” said young Nancy
The landlady pondered then said:-

You can stay here in my house, young lady
But he must sleep next door my dear
And when you get up in the morning
You can breakfast together in here!

On the evening before the wedding
A young lad knocked on her Aunt’s door
With a note from the teacher, Miss Holloway
Harry’s heart sank right through to the floor

The note said, “I think I have misled you,
I am two years older not one”
He wrote back and said “Oh my darling
Your maths was never spot on!!”

The wedding took place at Corscombe
In the church where Ann sang in the choir,
And as it was April and spring time
There were bright country flowers to admire

The food was a bit of a problem
As rations were still very tight,
But many kind friends and relations
Rallied round to make everything right

Now some nearby American soldiers
Heard that Ann was about to wed
They arrived in a jeep in the morning
With enough food to make a good spread!

Ann had many young friends in the village
One lent her the dress that she wore
We were married on the tenth day of April
By the Vicar, the Reverend Storrs.

So here we are, sixty years later
It’s April the tenth to the day
Those years have flown by far too quickly
But the memories don’t fade away

Now most of those years have been happy
But sometimes there’s sadness to tell,
We’ve had lots of great times together
And enjoyed our own hobbies as well

Now Ann loves her art and her writing
Is an expert on flowers that are wild
For Harry it’s athletics and cricket
Local history, and rivers since child

We thank you dear friends and relations
And some have come quite a long way
We are so pleased to have you all with us
To share in our Diamond day!

Harry composed this Ode for his wife on their Diamond Wedding Anniversary. He asked a People's War volunteer to enter it onto the website on his behalf.

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