We spent a few days at Wadhurst and then went to Huntingdon - I went to see the town clerk about a house. He said I should have put my name down last year and that there was nothing available. I pointed out that I was in the Army and in Italy last year and what about doing something now. I could go on a list of hundreds and no hope for years. In April, 1946, Joyce had gone to her parents in Wadhurst, Sussex, and she was expecting our baby in about two months and I was doing up my Grandmother's old house in St. John's Street which my father had had cleaned up etc. but there was still plenty to do and it was available if I wanted somewhere to live. About this time the Mayor, Councillor Percy Green, organised a Welcome Home Party for ex service people of the town at the George Hotel. I was cutting wall plugs when the knife went through the wood too easily and I cut my thumb very badly. I mopped it up pressing the cut tightly together and luckily the blood slowly stopped oozing through. I considered not going to the party but put another bandage on and felt a bit better and went and enjoyed it. I went back to work at the Co-op as did Jim Watson and Stan Parcel but sadly Bill Tatman and John Moon never came back. Bill died as a prisoner of the Japanese on their death railway and John was killed in the last few months of the war in Germany. Also Frank Brand never came back to work; I heard he got T.B. as a prisoner in Germany and was unable to work - he died quite young soon after the end of the war. Dick Harris came back and found out his wife had been entertaining American servicemen in their bed on a regular basis and divorced her and went to Liverpool and married John Moon's widow.

Mr. Webster, the Co-op shop manager, thought we servicemen should be grateful to the female staff who had kept the shop going while we were away, as if we had been on holiday. We didn't go much for that as we thought they had been lucky to enjoy a peaceful time while we had been fighting a war and really they had no idea and we didn't expect them to have and we  didn’t expect any thanks. But we knew the rough times and hardships most of us had endured in other countries, on the sea or wherever and we knew there could be no comparison with doing an ordinary job in a comparatively peaceful small town in England. So we said nothing and settled back into a routine that soon became familiar and boring. I had to cycle round the outlying villages with a small case taking orders to be delivered by van later and collecting the money for the previous week, selling the special line for the week if possible. In 1947, it was I think on 5th March we awoke to a world of white - we had the deepest snowfall and as I went past the old St John’s Cemetery the old walnut tree crashed down. I still had my round to do and between Wennington and Woodwalton the only way was along a track made by the wide tyres of a tractor - I managed to get round to everyone.

There was a business for sale at Houghton and my Grandmother's solicitor went to the sale on my behalf  - it was out of my reach financially and Mr. Harrison rightly said it would be too great a burden. What with frustrated attempts at managers jobs within the Co-op I decided it was time for me to get out and into something entirely different and my brother, Francis, told me of a clerical job in the War Ag. So I went to see them and they said they would have me. When I gave in my notice to leave the Co-op they said I could not leave under the control of engagements order. Joyce was friendly with the Manager of the Labour Exchange's wife and I went to see him and he explained the rules and told me I could leave the Co-op and put myself out of a job, go to the Labour Exchange and say I was out of work - they would ask if I had anything in mind and I would tell them - and so it worked out. It was less pay to start - in the lowest grade of temporary clerk, grade III, and I said at my interview that I would very soon get on or get out. I started on 5th February 1949, and our son Philip was born on 5th March on the worst night of the year, whirling snow in a bitter wind and roads covered in ice. I went wheeling my bike, as it was impossible to ride and I was afraid if I fell over and hurt myself Joyce would be left alone, to fetch Nurse Hardwick in Ingram Street. I was thankful to get there safely - she gave me the gas/air equipment to carry on my bike and she followed. It was a great relief to find Joyce all right and the baby well on the way. I sneaked a look through the little window in the door of the front  room,  where  we  had put a bed ready, and I saw the baby's head appear. Nurse Hardwick soon called me in and said I would have to go for the doctor, as a few stitches were needed. Dr Forbes came very quickly and everything seemed to be all right. About this time I was promoted to grade II clerk and helped the Finance Officer, Mr. Stevenson, with the annual accounts, getting quite a bit of overtime pay. Then there were the reconstruction exams; I hadn’t been there long enough to be in scheme 'A' and I was pleased I would be eligible for scheme 'B' the following year, 1951. As so many failed scheme 'A' I took a correspondence course, starting 8th July 1949, to get me up to date and I worked hard at it and sat the exams by the R.S.A. in Cambridge. Eventually I got the good news that I had passed well up the list, only 109th of the 500 passes and of course many more failed. So of course I was very pleased as I was now an established C.O. (Clerical Officer) and soon found myself in charge of all payments including salaries and wages and the industrial workers such as machinery operators, engineers, pest operators etc. also all travelling expenses. I also had to check all cheques etc. for accuracy and produce a complete coded balance sheet and bank reconciliation statement at the end of each month. All this was quite hard for a start especially as one of the wages clerks made a mistake and on one occasion lost the whole of made up industrial wage packets for an hour or so. They were found eventually where they had slipped behind a cupboard. Then I was voted Chairman of our C.S.C.A. (Civil Service Clerical Association) Union and when I came to check with the secretary and treasurer after the A.G.M. the cash balance was substantially short and I had considerable trouble getting the missing cash from the previous treasurer - Mr. John Waddelow. He, John Waddelow, also caused me a lot of aggravation by getting  ‘some casual workers’ money’ mixed up with his own. When I tried to balance the actual petty cash with what the books showed there was about £10 short. I told him in the end I would report the facts to the Finance Officer, Mr Stevenson. Maybe he thought I was bluffing and would back down but I could not afford to make it up myself and my experience had taught me that it’s better to be straight about such things and face the facts squarely and get it over and that is what I did. The F.O. also reported the matter to the Chief Officer and I had to see him. Mr. Waddelow was lucky not to be sacked. As I was newish and he had been in his safe job all through the war he probably  thought I would lack the nerve to face it out. I seem to have had my share of having to deal with people like him - petty pilferers who misjudged my resolve and thought they could take advantage of me. I have never sought a fight over anything but have had several thrust upon me almost always concerning money and some only of 'face' as when I was a corporal much younger than some of the soldiers I was 'leading'. I took the R.S.A. Bookkeeping exam and passed first class in May, 1956.

I was a C.O. for about ten years and went to London nearly every year on promotion board for E.O. as I always had excellent reports. I never got E.O. thank goodness; I visited Northampton for an 'Assistant Finance Officer’ vacancy competition. I went on the now defunct railway from Huntingdon East Station via Grafham as far as Kettering and then a bus to Northampton - I did not get it. I also got an interview for Assistant F.O. at Huntingdon and one of the inquisitors was Lord DeRamsey as Chairman of the Agricultural Executive Cte. The Chief Executive Officer, Mr. J.O, Johnson who knew me well and was always very friendly and fair to me told me his Lordship was well impressed and surprised at the way I could answer all the questions. However, no-one was appointed at that time and eventually Jack Owen was promoted by London through the normal Ministry promotion procedure - that was the end of the local competitive interview for vacancies and Civil Service Central Control took over so that seniority is counted as well as reports and performance and the interviews were now all in London. Meanwhile my work as a C.O. varied and often took all my energy and ingenuity especially when the payments of all grants and subsidies were transferred to a new automated system where schedules and punched tapes were produced and sent to a special section at Guildford and electric flexowriters churned out cheques and addressed them automatically cutting out the laborious typing, manual checking putting in envelopes and posting. I played an important part in the transfer to the new system and got excellent reports. Mr. Gerry Wood was the H.E.O. of all the grants and subsidies and in due course he told me I should pass the driving test and get a driving licence because he would be recommending me particularly for promotion to Field Officer when the next Board came up and he knew there would be a vacancy at Huntingdon. I took driving lessons with Mr Garrett's driving school, took the test in Peterborough on 12th November 1960, and passed first time. The examiner asked me if I had driven large vehicles at  some  time  as  he noticed I took  my  corners  a  bit wide for a small car. The only driving I had done before my about fourteen lessons with Garrett and Powell was army trucks in Italy sixteen years before. I was thankful to have passed because as Gerry Wood had predicted there was soon another Board for promotion to Field Officer grade 111 general duties. Due to Mr. Wood’s warning I was well prepared for this one. I spent some time with Sydney Johnson, a cousin of my mother’s, on his mixed farm at Oldhurst and I read up a lot - Farmers’ Weekly and such farming Journals. I got temporary promotion to Field Officer with effect from Monday, 6th February 1961. I had to drive a Ministry car, a Ford Popular, as I could not buy one. However, before I could start any duties or even training as a Field Officer I had to keep the wages section going as all the clerical staff were away ill with ‘flu’ and this continued until Wednesday, 15th, when I was put into the care of Arthur Pettifer, who first took me with him taking seed samples for two days then he came with me in the official car and we did a variety of jobs checking subsidies etc. in the Ramsey area, and for the next few days various farms and jobs with two different F.O.s.

On Friday 10th March 1961, I got the train to Kings Cross at 11.36 a.m., the fare was £1.4/- as there was no cheap day, I got a bus to Charing Cross (sixpence) and walked to the Ministry Offices, Horseferry Road, Room 629 sixth floor, for my interview at 4.15 p.m. for F.O. Ill (Executive). The interview seemed to go reasonably well and I got a bus (8p.) from Lambeth Bridge to Kings Cross and caught the 6.26 p.m. train arriving at Huntingdon at 7.30 p.m. Work was extremely varied: pig and egg surveys, fertiliser and line subsidies, ploughing grants. Italian (P.O.W.) labour applications, Small Farmer Scheme, Cereal Deficiency Payments Scheme, Farm Improvement Scheme, Sugar Beet Eelworm Control Work, checking crops in fields and recording details.

On Tuesday, 16th May, 1961, I see by my diary I started using my own car a Morris Minor 800 convertible MMW 556, also I see I bought 1 cwt. potatoes for l8/- and two dozen eggs for 7/-, 2 gallons petrol 9/4 and paid 11/- for 500 mile service and oil change.

I see we went on holiday in our own car for the first time on Sunday, 30th July 1961. Left Huntingdon at 7.50 a.m. got to Wanstead (to visit Mollie and Bunts in Lawn Gardens) at 10.15 a.m. We left them at 3 p.m. and arrived at Wadhurst at 5.15 p.m. (total 112 miles).

END ............Mum's memoirs:...