I gave Mr. Connington a week's notice - he was pretty mad but we parted on good terms. I started at Palmer's Stores at Rickmansworth with high hopes and got on pretty well; my landlady in Ebury Street was an old slut but not too bad, she had two other lodgers and a flighty daughter who was being courted by one of the other lodgers.

I quite enjoyed my time off. I joined the bell ringers at the local church, which had eight bells and also a hand-bell ringing team. I also walked along the canal and cycled all round the area: Burnham Beeches; a little hamlet called Egypt; into Harrow-on-the-Hill once, but when I started getting a bit mixed with the tramlines I decided not to go any nearer to London.

When I asked for my rise Mr. Palmer started quibbling and said I needed more experience so I decided it was time to find another job so I followed the same procedure as before and had the choice of two jobs, one at Leigh-on-Sea and one at Wadhurst in Sussex. I plumped for Sussex.

When I got off the train at Wadhurst Station I looked around for the town/village and there was nothing to see, and then luckily a chap in a car asked me where I was going and when I told him Sparrows Green he said he was going that way and gave me a lift. I was very grateful as my case was heavy but I didn't have far to walk to "Broad View" and soon met Mr. & Mrs. Frank and Dolly Sand who I was to lodge with. I was allocated a nice large bedroom and I settled in happily, the bedroom having a nice view - it was a vast improvement on Ebury Road, Rickmansworth.

I started work at Gardner's Stores at 8 a.m. on Monday and met Mr. Gardner the proprietor and some of the other assistants. They all seemed friendly enough and I soon settled in. One of the assistants, Mr. Midmer, an old soldier from the 1914/18 war introduced me to Toc H and I quite enjoyed their meetings. Fred Hemsley, another assistant, about my age was also friendly and showed me round the countryside and we had some long walks. Ernie Jones was different and was inclined to be a bit resentful - we squared up to each other once in the cellar and he backed oft when he saw he might get the worst of it and he never challenged me again. I was soon put on a long 'round' canvassing/taking orders and 'selling' to order anything from the shop. I should describe the shop here - quite large by village standards, three large windows and two doors, one for grocery and general - wines, spirits, beers etc. with two separate counters - one for provisions i.e. bacon, butter, cheese, ham etc. and the other for all the other things. The other door was for a separate area for drapery, ladies clothes, cotton, tape etc. in which two young women worked. There was also a central cash desk - Miss Bartrum cashier was very smart as was the old-fashioned bookkeeper, Mr. Hazledine, and they both came in the bus from Tunbridge Wells. Mr. Gardner, the proprietor, worked wherever he fancied and occasionally served and talked to customers. He was quite a decent type and was never bossy or domineering. Like all shops in those prewar days the working hours were long, open at 8 a.m. all day until 6p.m. except Friday and Saturday 8 p.m. and Bank Holidays always had to be earned by extra late nights before them often 9 or 9.30 with only a break for lunch and tea. Much of the work was heavy - flour in 10 stone (140 lb) sacks and sugar in 2 cwt (224 lb) sacks. Sides of bacon, whole cheeses, boxes of butter and all had to be cut up etc. and weighed of course, cases of tinned goods - all had to be carried.

There were rats everywhere of course and a wild or almost wild big ginger farm cat was installed to try and keep them down. I got my B.S.S. racing cycle sent by train from home and made good use of it cycling all over the area especially to Hastings which was only twenty miles away but a few long steep hills; beautiful country though and I enjoyed it. Dennis Baldwin was a driver for Mr. Gardner driving him and his wife in the car as well as doing some deliveries by one of the vans - there were three, two large and one small. Dennis got married and in due course he came and asked me if I would like to buy his Claude Butler (Rolls Royce of touring cycles which I had always envied) because he needed the money (£5 I think) to buy a pram. I enjoyed my cycling even more then and found dozens of different routes to Hastings, Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge etc. Poor old Dennis became even more hard pressed for money and was caught  (by Mr. Pilbeam and   taken to Mr. Gardner) taking baskets full of groceries home for himself without paying or having a bill made out. Dennis was immediately sacked and of course in disgrace, he was a scoutmaster and had been a trusted employee. He had got away with it a long time and he wasn't the only one to win a bit but he was blatant and greedy - others were more surreptitious and careful what they took and when. The fact is though - one could not keep a family on the pay and I think I (single) was paid about the same as the others accept the two top men. Things being so tight something had to give and normally honest people are tempted, first by a little and then, in Dennis's case, it seemed too easy and it grew into a lot and carelessness. For Dennis it meant disgrace in the small community but he endured it bravely and came out of it eventually getting a job not far away.

Frank and Dolly Bond had a Singer car and they very kindly took me out with them sometimes - once to Chatham dockyard during Navy week and I shall always remember the first time they took me to Bexhill and the long high hedges of rhododendrons all in flower; though I have seen all many times since the wonder of that first sighting remains with me. Frank and Dolly had many a squabble and both, separately, confided in me and wanted me to see their side of it - I managed to be noncommittal and remained on good terms with them both. Frank was an insurance agent with the Prudential and he was always being pushed by the district manager to add another two or three pence to his weekly collection which put him under pressure.

Sparrows Green is high and the centre of Wadhurst is approached down a hill with a marvellous view over to the woodlands, Sheepwash Lane. Snape Wood and the Miners' Arms area - sometimes in early morning the valley would be covered in white mist and with the sun coming up above it afforded quite a sight. It was always a nice view and I enjoyed my cycle ride to the shop in the village square below.

On my journey from work I had noticed an attractive girl who I discovered worked as a bookkeeper etc. at the corn merchants shop and lived in Durgates another section of Wadhurst nearer to Sparrows Green. I can't be quite sure now how I managed it but I got a date for a walk one evening. Her name was Joyce Goldsmith and her father was a shoemaker. I think she didn't like me much at first but we both enjoyed walking in the beautiful surrounding countryside - finding the first primroses under the snow in early spring. Blackberries in early summer and hazel nuts in autumn; visiting Baptist tin churches and chapels sometimes on Sunday evenings to sing with them and see what they were like. We both, separately, went to Wadhurst Church and I was a bellringer there for some time. There was a also a small community hut in the grounds of Hill House where table tennis was played and dances held.

One evening in, I think 1937 or 38, we saw the Graf Zeppelin (German airship) flying south over Snape Wood and it looked like inland all round by the coast. There was much speculation at that time that Germany was preparing for war and that the Zeppelin was probably mapping the area in preparation - later when I was at Huntingdon there was an influx of German students staying at Houghton Mill and walking round Wyton area, an important R.A.F aerodrome.

One day I was called to the telephone in the cash-desk at the shop and it was my brother Francis who said Mr. Conington, my former employer at Huntingdon, was bankrupt due to his wife's extravagance and he wanted me to have first refusal for the business; Mr. Dear also a former employer who owned the shop premises had been to see my family and would back me and thought I should go home and be ready to take over (leaving my present job). I therefore told all this to Mr. Gardner who was encouraging and friendly and would let me go without working out a notice; he paid me to date and wished me good luck. When I got to Huntingdon Mr. Dear came to see me and said we had to wait a while for things to be sorted out - valuation of the business etc. stock-take. I waited and waited and eventually after about a fortnight went to see Mr. Conington at the shop, he was very embarrassed and told me he was very sorry for me but of course pleased for himself that he had now been helped out of his difficulties and that he would be carrying on. Mr. Dear came to see me later to also tell me and suggest I may like to work for him and manage the shop if Mr. Conington had to go later. I was pretty fed up, as I did not trust either of them to give me a fair deal and was not really bothered about me. I realised I had been led up the garden path and was on my own and out of a job. I signed on at the Labour Exchange. I was refused benefit because I had given up my job voluntarily and put myself out of work. I appealed and went before a tribunal at Peterborough. In the meantime I had written and cycled to various companies for a job mostly to Co-ops. After a week or so I had notice that the tribunal decided in my favour and I was allowed the dole from the time I had signed on - I think it was nineteen shillings a week. I continued looking for work and after about six weeks I got a temporary job - prospects of permanency - at the Co-op. This was quite a rigmarole, good references, interview with head buyer at Peterborough Head office and interview by the local committee. Anyway I wanted the job as the Co-op is a Trade Union Employer and paid the best - it was quite hard work as they were in the process of building a new shop and were in temporary premises which necessitated much more carrying of 2 cwt. sacks of sugar, flour and corn which were all part of a grocer's stock then - now the law allows any worker to lift or carry not more than 112 lbs. I also had canvassing to do with a little case - taking a few samples of new or special lines, order book and cash book to collect for the previous week's goods - this wasn't bad in good weather but in the winter and in very wet cold weather it was hard very similar to Gardners as that was the general rule in those times. I felt that now I was earning a 'living' wage Joyce and I could afford to marry, I had always said I would not get married until I had £100 in the bank and a reasonable wage as I did not intend to end up like some of Gardner's workers. So Joyce and I had a marvellous holiday in June, 1939, at Lynton in Devon - staying in a farm house on a working farm looking over beautiful fields smothered in buttercups and we walked all around the area - Watersmeet, Valley of Rocks, along the cliffs and swimming in the sea; we took a trip from Lynmouth to Ilfracoombe on a paddle steamer which had to be boarded from a small motor boat.

The war clouds were gathering fast now and war seemed inevitable, Germany eating up other European countries and if they invaded Poland we were bound to help that country. The ultimatum given by Neville Chamberlain our Prime Minister was that if Germany invaded Poland we were at war with Germany. We were all issued with gas masks and taught how to use them. A.R.P. (air raid precautions) posts were set up; conscription had been brought in. Francis was the first to be called up in our family; he went into the Artillery Anti Aircraft Depot at Yeovil for training.

................3 War...