“fie my lord fie, a soldier and afeard?”
from Macbeth. Lady Macbeth’s soliquoy – Shakespeare
I never wanted to be a soldier – my ambition was to play cricket for England and so tour the world. I didn’t anticipate making the journey as a member of H.M. Forces. I was twenty-one years old, and it was 1939. I had qualified as a teacher – a good “job” in those days – and had a position as an Assistant Master in a boys’ school in Middlesbrough. Life was pleasant. I was playing both soccer and cricket for good teams, and actually had had a trial for Middlesbrough Football Club. I was hoping to combine my teaching with a rewarding sporting career. I also had a girl friend whom I had met at College, and she had come to teach in Middlesbrough to be near me.
There had been rumblings and rumours of war for some months, and I remember listening to the speeches of Adolf Hitler on the radio (‘wireless’ in those days). However, when Neville Chamberlain , the Prime Minister, broadcast to the nation on September 3rd, 1939, and declared solemnly that we were “now at war with Germany” the impact of this moment was stunning, particularly as air raid sirens sounded immediately after the announcement. It was a false alarm – that is, the sound of the sirens but not the war.
The Government decided that schoolchildren in vulnerable industrial areas should immediately be evacuated to safer places. Our school was to go to Cayton Bay near Scarborough, and within a month we were on our way. Soon after settling in at the N.A.L.G.O. holiday camp the headmaster asked me to take about forty of the boys on to the beach for some exercise. We had been there only a few minutes when there was a loud explosion which turned out to be a sea mine striking the rocks. That finished our trips to the beach.