The Beginning

In September 1939 when the declaration of war was broadcast on radio by Chamberlain, I was enjoying the weekend following the first week of a fortnight holiday at Jersey Holiday Camp, Portlet Bay in Jersey. The two chaps sharing a chalet with me were in the same age group. I was 19. We knew we would return home to be ‘called up’, so we decided to continue our holiday for the remaining week thinking it may be a long time before we had the chance of another. We went to a bar at the Osborne Hotel in St Aubin Bay and got drunk in the evening. In my case, for the first time in my life. I was taken back to our chalet and put to bed fully dressed by my holiday friends. One was a Manager of a branch of Burtons the Tailors and the other, employed by Reuters, was a member of the R.N. Volunteer Reserve who, in a day or so, received a Telegram instructing him to report as Telegraphist to a Minesweeper, called . I think, HMS ZAZA or some such improbabable name. I was employed in Paddington Manual Telephone Exchange, London as a Post Office engineer. Because the Jersey States had not declared war we all had to obtain an exit permit endorsed by the Lieutenant Governor of Jersey’s office from the local ‘Jurat’ . I still have it. Leaving the island a week later by boat at night in normal lighting, we arrived in Southampton in darkness. Our first experience of the ‘Black Out’. My war had begun.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.