About the contributor

I was born in August 1948 and my father, Arthur Brougham, started to write a sort of history/diary for me to read later in life. It was handwritten in exercise books and includes much family history and personal details of my ancestors along with information about inventions over the course of his lifetime. It starts in October 1948 and ends abruptly in February 1949. I think he must have either lost interest or else there is another exercise book somewhere - probably destroyed. I found the books by chance amongst old papers when my mother passed away in 1991. My father died in 1960 when I was 11 years old. My mother had either forgotten or possibly never knew about the history, so I was in my 40s before I read it. This was a strange but wonderful experience to say the least. I have submitted the section he wrote concerning the second world war. He had been a child in the Great War, being born in 1905, and consequently was too old to be called up for the second. The narrative explains his part in the defence of the country and that of my mother, along with his emotions of the time. I have not checked the history or altered the text, but believe the account to be true. It was written only three years after the end of the war and my father was an intelligent man with a gift for writing. I hope you find his words interesting. The section begins with the start of their married life. My parents were married in September 1942.