Part 2 – My life

England, back to Deal and so Carole and I were reunited again we were allocated married quarters again in Freeman’s way. This time it was a house.We were to remain in that house until my demob on 26 November 1965. The last thing I did at leaving our flat was to give the landlady a mouthful for the way she had treated Carole and the kids whilst I was in Aden.

Achievements in the Royal Marines were medals awarded: Gen service medal for active service in Cyprus and Suez Canal. Also, naval Gen service medal for active service in Aden(Radfan) I also boxed in the inter unit boxing tournaments and played football for 45 commando against the Navy.

CIVVY STREET

So after 12 years in the Royal Marines. I was returning to life as a civilian. How would I cope. Well, first of all we had to move back to Tottenham and live with my parents until we could find a place to live  also I had to get a job!

Finding a job was easy I went to work in a factory called M&K, which produced household plugs my job was to stand at the end of a conveyor belt and pack six plugs in each box as they came through, I started work on a Monday at 8 o’clock, and by 12 o’clock I had enough, so I walked out and went home, after the active life I had been leading that job was too boring. That afternoon I went to the Labour exchange and was informed that a firm in Harlow were looking for a security officer, but had to be M.O.D cleared and as I had just come out of the Marines I would probably be suited so an interview was made for me to go to Harlow for the interview.The interview was successful. I got the job and travelled to Harlow each day for six months. I was then allocated a council house, Carole was over the moon when we eventually moved into the house and I am happy to say that we are still living there having bought the house when the conservative government passed an act in Parliament that houses could be bought from local councils.

We moved into our house with very little furniture as we had been living with my mum and dad, but we had three beds, kitchen table and four chairs and a couch and a few other odds and ends plus a rented tv,on the floors we had lino, the fire was a gas fire which didn’t really give out much heat, in the winter the house was really cold. The first improvement we made on this house was to install a Raeburn fire and radiators which was great. On moving in our new neighbour Cath Wright greeted us with a cuppa tea, which was nice, but she didn’t know that Carole never drank tea, and to this day, Carole  never drank another cup of tea.

We settled in and eventually got around to seeing all our new neighbours who were very friendly.  Tony our son who was then aged five started school at Little Parndon and settled in nicely Lesley, of course, was still too young to go to school and stayed at home with Carole while I went to work at Cossorelectronics as a security officer. I stayed at this job for 12 months and then the government passed a law on pay freeze and I could no longer exist on the meagre pay so I got a new job in Securicor as a patrolman on nights, this job I enjoyed even though it was nights, but after a few months I was promoted to an officer which meant I could go on daywork. I had only been an officer for a few weeks When I got a phone call from the managing director Keith Erskine, who informed me that I had been made, branch manager no less, I was very surprised at the rapid promotion that I had achieved in such a short space of time! But Keith Erskine was a brilliant businessman, but very eccentric as I was to find out during my time with Securicor. One of my duties as branch manager. Was to carry out interviews for new personnel. I remember one of these interviews, which particularly stuck in my mind was with a new recruit called Ken Stokes Ken who was later to become a very good friend of mine but back to the interview one of the questions I had to ask was “have you a criminal record” Ken replied “I was arrested once and charged with urinating on the Queen’s highway I was taken short on the M11 and had to pull over and go” when he told me this. I could not help but burst out laughing and told him that I didn’t think this would be on his record, but I was wrong! Head office informed me a few months later that Ken had to go because of a criminal record, so I had to explain the reason for this record, which was accepted and so Ken was saved from being fired.

Another time I had to go out and drive one of the armoured cars and was really tired because I had been on duty the night before, but we collected factory wages from the bank and started to deliver, we got to the high Street in Hoddesdon and I ran into the back of a dustcart, one of the Dustman said!!”” Blimey mate. I’ve heard of you guys being rammed by robbers, but never a dustcart being rammed by an armoured vehicle”lucky enough I only caused minor damage, so we were able to finish our deliveries.
My next job was Ford motor company at Enfield as a security officer. This paid more money than Securicor did, I stayed there for about 12 months and then I was approached by the managing director of a local security company called rentadog he wanted me to become manager of this company as apparently he had heard that I had been a good manager for Securicor! I thought about this for some time and eventually decided that I would accept and so once again  I changed jobs. I was supplied with an estate car, which came in quite useful as by now the kids were old enough to take on holidays with us our first holidays were normally taken in. Another time I had to go out and drive one of the armoured cars and was really tired because I had been on duty the night before, but we collected factory wages from the bank and started to deliver, we got to the high Street in Hoddesdon and I ran into the back of a dustcart, one of the Dustman said!!”” Blimey mate. I’ve heard of you guys being rammed by robbers, but never a dustcart being rammed by an armoured vehicle”lucky enough I only caused minor damage, so we were able to finish our deliveries.

So life continued until one day I received another call from Keith Erskine informing me that he was promoting me again,to area manager for the whole of East Anglia up to Nottingham. This meant I was now responsible for 22 branches, which involved quite a lot of travelling each day until it got too much for me and I resigned from Securicor. My next job was Ford motor company at Enfield as a security officer. This paid more money than Securicor did, I stayed there for about 12 months and then I was approached by the managing director of a local security company called rentadog he wanted me to become manager of this company as apparently he had heard that I had been a good manager for Securicor! I thought about this for some time and eventually decided that I would accept and so once again.  I changed jobs. I was supplied with an estate car, which came in quite useful as by now the kids were old enough to take on holidays with us our first holidays were normally taken in Devon a beautiful place, but we also went to Cornwall where it rained for the whole week, Wales was the same rain rain rain, but we found Wales a much more interesting place we had a lovely little cottage called Rose cottage at the bottom of Mount Snowdon, and we often used to go for walks on Snowdon, though we never ever made the top but at this time we had a little dog called Sheba, who used to chase the sheep so we had to be careful.In the meantime rentadog decided to branch out and do wage packeting this work involved the men collecting money from the bank and delivering it to the managing directors house. Where his wife and Carole would put the money into wage packets for delivery to the factories in Harlow this was not a very secure practice to do it in a private house. This was to be proved when one of our employees Tony Kelly passed on all this information to a gang of hard bitten robbers were arrested in London and all the details had been found on one of the gang, even to the fact not to  to gag Carole as she could not breathe through her nose. Tony Kelly was charged with aiding and abetting and was sentenced to 1 years imprisonment.We had settled nicely into our home,the kids were happy and Lesley had started school in Little Parndon and had lots of friends in the square and got into all sorts of mischief that kids do !!!especially Lesley,and so life continued until I fell out with the managing Director of Rentadog and went to work as a security guard again. In my final job until I was made redundant after 19 years,my longest job ever!! working for Gilbeys distillery,I was promoted to supervisor and then to security advisor until the firm closed down and moved to Scotland in 1991.Whilst working at Gilbey’s I bought myself a bright green Ford Capri which was very stylish and sporty looking, Tony had passed his driving test By then and he bought an old mini but this didn’t suit him, so he asked if we could use my Capri which I agreed too until one day when I was going to work on the opposite side of the road

I could see a Ford Capri the same as mine. It flashed its lights and I realised it was Tony in his sporty type sunglasses, Windows down, radio blaring as though he was king of the road, that was it !!me driving this crabby old mini and Tony driving my Capri!! What a cheek!!! But we often laugh over this.
On another occasion I bought a moped off a security guard for £15 and borrowed a racing helmet off of a mate and the kids in the square used to call me Atom Ant so the moped didn’t last long.
One sad incident occurred while I was working at Gilbey’s, a young girl of 17 ran across the road in front of an articulated lorry I was first on the scene and the poor girl lay in the road her legs were split open, just like an orange they had been crushed beneath the wheels I attended to this girl and comforted her, while another guard held up the traffic until the ambulance came. I have no doubt this saved her life. Although she spend some time in the hospital, but eventually she was able to walk with the aid of crutches, although she was crippled for life, I did receive a letter of thanks from her for saving her life.

By this time Tony and Lesley our children had grown up and left home, Tony had married and had two wonderful children Danielle and Kerry, who we used to take our caravan we had bought in Minster on a nice caravan park called The Foxhunter. It was quite close to the coast and we very often used to ride into Herne Bay also Ramsgate. They used to love spending the weekend there with us. Tony had divorced by then, moved to Nottingham and remarried a lovely lady called Wendy. Thereafter Callum was born and so we now had a grandson who at the time of writing has turned into a magnificent young man.

Lesley moved into a flat near the town centre and so our children had flown the nest, but we still had our grandchildren who we used to see quite often and still do. Those grandchildren have now grown up and have given us two lovely great grandchildren Jamie and Billy at the time of writing Jamie is nine years old and Billy is three years old, they are the main reason why I am writing this story, so that one day, when they are old enough, they will read it and know more about their grandparents and who knows, maybe their children will read it also But more about Carole once the kids had gone to school. She got herself a job at the local Wimpey bar in the town centre until the owner got the franchise on the “Birdcage” which was an entertaiment centre and asked Carole to be a chef there. Carole agreed and worked there for about three years and then from there she went to the Playhouse and worked in the restaurant for 11 years and then the Playhouse was going to close the restaurant, but Carole and two girls who worked with her asked the Council if they could have the franchise on it. The council agreed and so they ran the Playhouse restaurant now called the Petticoat for 12 years until the council decided to let the whole of the building out to an  entertainments group. This included the restaurant who had turned a loss into a profit-making business. Very soon, the council realised they had made a mistake and the Playhouse was soon in debt again, but by now the girls had moved on, which was a great shame because they used to have plenty of functions, weddings, parties, Christmas and New Year celebrations, and on these occasions I would help out in the kitchen.

Now,I turn to holidays abroad, which will be the last episode in this book