- I left FGS in February 1942 - my Mum had got fed up with the nightly air raids and my Dad got himself a job in the office of Vickers Armstrongs at Squires Gate where they were then making Wellington bombers.
- I transferred to Blackpool G S where I finished the year and took the School Certificate exams with quite satisfactory results.
- I left school and got a job in the Borough Treasurer's Dept. I stayed there until I volunteered for the Royal Navy and joined up a few days after my 18th birthday in December, 1943. I trained as a radar mechanic and when I completed that training I was transferred to the Fleet Air Arm and joined an air sea rescue squadron using the old Sea Walrus flying boats. Later I was on squadrons flying Swordfish biplanes, Barracudas, Seafires and Mosquitoes - I was ground crew but went up on many test flights.
- I was finally demobbed as a Petty Officer in March, 1946 and went back to my old job in the Town Hall. After qualifying as an accountant in 1956 I got a better job in Rochdale Town Hall, stayed there for 6 years and moved down to join the West Sussex County Council as Deputy Chief Auditor and became Chief Accountant (Education) until I took early retirement in August 1981
- My wife and I lived in Bognor Regis, with our two children (one of each) and I travelled daily to Chichester to work. My wife died in December, 1987 but I stayed living in Bognor until I moved over to Brighton in 1993.
- My daughter had married an Italian, had two sons and has lived in Novara (near Milan) since 1973.
My son qualified as an architect, worked abroad in Nigeria, Qatar, Ryhad, Dubai and Abu Dhabi for a number of years but he eventally married, has two talented daughters and (with an ex Dubai colleague) set up his own practice in London (near London Bridge).
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