Born in Yeovil, Somerset, on 4 Dec 1928. Came to Bideford in 1935 after my father was appointed manager of a glove making company. I was at Geneva School primary school for 3 years before entering BGS in 1939. I enjoyed school work.
I played rugby and cricket, joined the Army Cadet Force and sang in the choir. Headmaster Langford was a very fine tenor and had put together an excellent choir which sang in Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast! I was also in the gymnastic team that performed at various local venues to help keep people cheerful during the war. In the senior school I played in the 1st XV, but sadly we were unable to play some of the other schools, for instance we could not go to Queen Elizabeth’s at Crediton, as there was not enough petrol. In athletics, I came 3rd in the Senior Cross Country, after which would come the Mile race, described below.
There was a German boy called Klaus at the school, from a family forced to flee Germany, who desperately wanted to be part of the school activities and to be accepted. He was quite tall, well-built and eager, and I felt he could make his name in the Mile, and he asked virtually everyone in the 5th and 6th Forms to join him in training. In fact, I was the only one to take pity on him and pounded the roads around Abbotsham twice or more per week. Come the day, the whole school turned out to watch. I had never been that keen on the long-distance races and stayed in the middle bunch. However, when approaching the last two bends, it suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t feel too exhausted, went past five or six and found that I was in third place, then second, and roared on by the Stucley boys, caught and passed the leader (a boy from Torrington who was the red-hot favourite). Klaus was about 15th. There must be a moral here!
During the war (not sure which year) we were asked to do ‘fire-watching’ at school, when two of us stayed at the school all night to be able to tackle, or at least respond, if there were any incendiary bombs dropped on the buildings. Thankfully, none ever came our way.
I remember one evening when, having gone to bed and eyes closed (with heavy blackout curtains in place), there were two enormous flashes followed by explosions. I had the feeling that they had come from roughly the top of town near Clovelly Road. Next morning, I got up early and cycled to the Bowden Green area near Handy Cross and found two gigantic craters from what were called landmines – heavy bombs which descended by parachute. I did quite well scrabbling for shrapnel and also a few pieces of parachute ‘silk’ cords. So I did a roaring trade at school as it appeared that no one else had located the site.
Apart from sporting activities, I also did quite well in most subjects and obtained a School Certificate and two years later, a Higher School Certificate.
I had one or two worrying moments though; on a Saturday morning in December, with three other boys, I visited a field at the bottom of Scaryface(?) Lane in Abbotsham. Using my air-gun, we would shoot at ships (i.e. small pieces of wood) in the middle of the field. Suddenly we realised a large policeman was looking at us and said he would be prosecuting me for using an air gun in an open place. He came to my parent’s house that evening and said he would be charging me. I started to relax a couple of weeks on, but then there was a large letter saying that I must attend court (by the Bridge buildings) and I recall that the biggest worry came from the thought that I would have to knock on the Headmaster’s door to ask for time off (on a Monday morning) to attend court. Thankfully the Head did not seem too bothered and my case was dropped – except for court expenses of four shillings – although I did have to appear!
I will give details of another desperate worry. With unexpected snow at about 3pm, I rushed home in record time to make a sledge. Not brilliant but with two friends I visited Brooks’ Field (just this side of London dairy) and while the snow was too fresh to be perfect, we did quite well. At the very top was a large old gentleman’s house, Kietrasna(?), where the Edgehill boarding girls lived. One of my friends had not made contact with them before and so for several hours we had a pleasant (and innocent) evening with four of them. Sadly, a mistress of Edgehill spotted them as they climbed back through their window. We heard later that the Headmistress was very annoyed and there was some talk of expulsion! Worse was to come the next day as we had been identified and again there was ftalk of heavy punishment. Not good. For some reason, however, all talk of punishment was dropped by both schools and it was never brought up again – a great relief.
The final prank was about a House rugby match. We all changed in the gym room, played the match and returned. One of the boys in Stranges, about 15 years old, had a full set of dentures and I noticed he placed the in his shoes, and after the match I took them out. Stupidly, I did not return them quickly and was very wrongfooted when a do-good boy went out and came back with a Master, at which point I must have lost all common sense and didn’t speak up. Within minutes the Headmaster was called. Getting shaky, I suddenly thought that the only way out might be to say “Headmaster, Sir, the pitch was very lumpy with large tufts of long grass, might it be possible that Alan, when heavily tackled, might have lost them then”? Now most of the school (apart from Torrington boys who had buses waiting), were sent to the pitch to go over every blade of grass! It goes without saying that my next move was to … glory be … to find them! Everybody was happy, although I noticed that two Masters gave me long knowing looks, but they did not pursue the issue. Alan obviously swore he had not played with them in, but with the dentures returned, no one else worried. I did not let others know and it all ‘went away’.
During the war we lived in Clovelly Road, Bideford and at different times, we had four or five evacuees from Selhurst Grammar School in Peckham and also about seven (one at a time) American soldiers billeted with us; they were here to be trained in waterproofing tanks and lorries. I was called up on 2nd January 1947, first to Exeter, then Holywood (?) in N Ireland, Bulford on Salisbury Plain, and finally on a troopship to Hong Kong. At Singapore we disembarked at a barracks near Changi jail and told we were eventually going up into Malaya, to control some communist “bandits” as they called them. However, each battalion had to have a “rep” in FARELF (far eastern forces) to enter details of actions, court marshals, injuries etc).
After about three weeks, the adjutant of 1st Bn. Devonshire Rgt. called me in to say they wanted me to go to HQ to be the second of the two “reps” required. He explained he had looked hard at all the details of this new lot and had come across my name, showing School Cert. and Higher School Cert. and thought this could be the answer. I obviously agreed and was posted to another part of the island. I had a fine time doing this, playing for the garrison rugby team, mostly against other services, but sometimes the Singapore Police, the Dental College and the like. I returned by troopship in February 1949.
My father, being manager of the glove making factory, suggested I fill in some time at the factory while considering my next move. This I did, but longer than anticipated, as dad died in January 1955 and to cut a long story short, I stayed on as co-manager with the son of one of the Directors. It was a pleasant enough life but difficult trading, as by then Hong Kong was exporting good gloves at very low prices!
We had three factories, Appledore, Bideford (the main one) and Torrington. We made the Appledore factory into a knitted glove unit (with Japanese knitting machines!) while I transferred to the Torrington factory which was still making fabric gloves in the “old” way. I visited Mansion House in London with others of the glove world, and also called in to Scotland Yard to ask if there was any possibility in obtaining the equivalent of finger prints from gloves. Despite spending several hours with the appropriate officer, we decided that it could never be on a par with actual fingerprints, so the idea was dropped. Later, the company was sold to a London based store which specialised in outdoor goods, clothing and camping equipment. I stayed on but retired when I was 60.
I played for Bideford Chiefs Rugby team, BGS Old Boys cricket team (which I captained for two periods), outdoor bowls at the Strand and later at the Kingsley rink, and played golf at Royal North Devon.
I married an Appledore girl in 1954, we had two girls, each of whom also had two children. My wife died 18 years ago. I was Secretary of the OBA for 22 years and was made an Honorary Life member in 1992 (?), along with past President P J Fletcher and the last BGS Headmaster, John Dare.
