Monday 5 February 2001

Last week I was asked about my short stories by Philip and I am considering with great expectations of being asked to offer my work.

I would like to thank everybody in Amity for their understanding and kindness to me. I never enjoyed writing but now I feel more confident in myself.

Now I find that my reading is not a problem to me and now my writing continues to improve each week.

Monday 12 February 2001

My memories of old Camberwell.

We lived in the Newington Causeway, next to the courthouse, in two rooms over a shop in the main road.

I went to a Roman Catholic school in the Borough High Street. We moved to Camberwell Road in 1935. I was about ten years old. We were living in two rooms on the third floor in a very big house in the main road: 100 Camberwell Road. With trams at the front of the house and trains at the back.

Monday 19 February 2001

When it was time to go back to school in September, my mother and I went to Kent, to Paddock Wood, hop picking for four weeks. My pal Harry came with us. We would catch the train to London Bridge at midnight on Friday. We would leave home at about 10 o'clock, and we would walk to the station with our belongings in an old pram.

Looking back one could say the weekends were very special, because the family would come to join us.

Monday 26 February 2001

The next four years were a very happy time from 1935 to 1939. When the war began I started work at 4p and hour.

In 1940 my father passed away, we were still living in Camberwell, my mother was on night work on the railway, at Blackfriars, as a porter. Now I was living where I was working at the factory, where there was a fire service. I was a messenger in the fire service at the age of fourteen years. At weekends we were on call at ten shillings and six pence, and food.

One night in an air raid we went to a fire in Clubland, which was a youth club in the Walworth Road.

Monday 3 March 2001

My father was a window-cleaner in the west-end of London. My dad used to drive a motorbike and sidecar. My father and I had many days out together, very happy days.

Monday 12 March 2001

The church was completely destroyed by the fire. Sometime later I became a member of the Youth Club and spent many happy times. At Clubland we had to attend an activity in the evenings and Saturday night was the dance and farewell to whoever was going into the services.

On Sunday the Methodist church service was a must.

I met my wife at the Clubland, she then sixteen years old. My best friend Wally was our best man at our later in 1947.

Monday 26 March 2001

I was called up to the Merchant Navy at eighteen years old and sent to Newcastle for training for six weeks. Then back to London to the docks to load the cargo of Johnnie Walker Scotch and suit material. The dockers loading the Scotch used to drop the wooden box of Scotch and they had their mugs at the ready. I can still see it now.

We sailed from the London docks and we joined the convoy in the Bay of Biscay and then we made for the Mediterranean and on to the Suez Canal to Mombassa, to Durban, to Port Elizabeth and there we reloaded with ammunition which we took back to Italy. And from there to Lisbon, which was a neutral country. They made us go ashore to a hotel for a few nights, while they fumigated the ship. Then we sailed back to England.

Monday 18 June 2001

I was released from the Merchant Navy to work as an electrician's mate on bomb damage repairs in London.

My wife Mary and I were married in 1947, the worst winter in living memory. We went to friends at Haywards Heath for our honeymoon. It was so cold that a glass of water was frozen in the morning.

In 1997, fifty years after our wedding we invited our Clubland friends to our party at home and we sent an invitation to Her Majesty the Queen. It was the Queen's 50th anniversary as well. We received a letter to say she was unable to accept, but she sent us an invitation to the Garden Party at Buckingham Palace. This invitation came with a letter from the Lord Chamberlain.

My letter to the Lord Chamberlain:-

The Secretary
38 Finsen Road
Lord Chamberlain's Office
London SE5 9AX

Dear Sir,

Buckingham Palace - London SW1

I thank you for your letter of 20th June concerning the Thanksgiving Service in Westminster Abbey on 20th November. I understand it is not possible for us to attend this service. Both my wife and I met Queen Mary in the 1940s and the Queen Mother in the 1960s, at our Youth Club in the Walworth Road, Camberwell.

My wife and I were very fortunate to attend the Queen's Royal Wedding Anniversary Garden Party in July. I am sure you will understand how we both feel at this time of our lives.

Yours sincerely,

Letter to the South London Press

Dear Sir,

My wife and I were very pleased to read your article in the South London Press, concerning the visit to Clubland of Queen Mary. We were both present at this occasion and I was amazed to see myself in the picture in the newspaper. My age was Letter to the South London Press about fifteen at the time. It was a great period in my life. London was being bombed very badly at this time. The Club was open every evening of the week. One had to attend an activity and go to the church service on Sunday. In 1941 during the bombing the Clubland church was on fire and destroyed. I was there with my best friend pumping water from the Grand Union Canal.

(Notes on work as an electrician)

Wiring for two lighting points and ring main for 14 Ruskin Park.

Remove old wiring.

Will be at work 9 a.m. Monday 21st

Wire for 13x13 amp.S/plugs and four lights.

Dear Glyn,

Thank-you for helping me on Wednesday night. I hope you had a nice day at work. I was about to go to Amity at 7.30 and I had a call to go to work at 71 Woodside Street. All lights out. Thank-you so much for working with me.

Your good friend.

 Wednesday

I am going at the weekend to Southport with Mary, Sunday to Wednesday. Hope to be home at 4 o/c.

Will be going to Southport on 22nd December and will be back in London 30.12.94.

Wednesday

Today our visitors left London to go to Paris on the Shuttle. They stayed in London for four days, which was very pleasant for us.

On Sunday they went to Covent Garden market. They enjoyed this very much indeed.

On Monday they went shopping in Oxford Street. They also went to St. Paul's Cathedral. In the evening they went to a show called "Les Miserables", which is a very good musical.

Monday 20th May 1996

Dear Peter,

It was very nice to see you again when we went to your school and to the jumble sale on the Saturday.

It was good to see the teacher who grows tomato plants. I have bought some at East Street market, they are doing very well at the moment.

I will be sending you some tokens from Sainsburys for your school at the weekend.

It was very nice going swimming with you and mum.

I hope to see you all again very soon.

Love Grandad

Monday 10th June 1996

Dear Clare,

We have just returned from our holiday at the hotel, it was very special. We all went swimming before breakfast and again in the afternoon.

The company was good, we were eight in all.

Monday 17.6.96

Dear Clare and Peter,

Just a few lines to thank you both for the cards on Fathers' Day. They were very nice and I was very pleased with them. I am hoping to be coming to Southport soon. Many thanks.

Love Grandad xxx

Monday 17th July 1996

Dear Jim,

Just a line to thank you very much for a lovely day on Sunday.

My friends were so pleased to meet you and the meal was excellent, especially the beef.

Monday 11.11.96

I was reading today about Cambridge Colleges, especially St. John's College where my granddaughter, Clare, is studying and in residence, starting on October 5th 1996.

Monday 16th February 1998

I have been coming here to Amity on a Monday night for two years. At first I was very nervous, but I was very happy to stay and meet such nice people at all times.

Now I feel very relaxed and I find I am very much more content with my situation to date. I find that my reading is not a big problem to me, and now my writing continues to improve each week.

I always wished I could write a letter, a thank-you letter would have been nice. My first letter was to Her Majesty the Queen on 25th January 1997, to invite her to a gathering at our home (for our wedding anniversary).

Dear Bill,

Just a few words to say thank you for your friendship over many good years, also our holiday that we spent together. There was a very special holiday in Germany when we were both standing on the river bank, when you slipped into the Moselle, pulling me with you.

In passing I must mention our happy years, at Clubland, that we spent together in 1947. Those days were very special to us both. In your passing and at the sevice it was very comforting to hear Ken speak to us all about you very sincerely. His thoughts and his memories will last with us forever.

Monday 24th May 1999

I am looking forward to changing my old car so I have made up my mind to have a black one again. We are looking to take it to Germany in June for ten days. We are looking forward to seeing everyone again after so many years. We will catch the 8.30p.m. ferry at night.

July 12th 1999

Dear Carol,

Just a line to thank you for making the tea every week and nobody ever says thank-you. But we all appreciate it very much indeed.

I hope you have a very pleasant day, we will be thinking of you.

Your very good friend

Monday 19th July 1999

Dear Sir,

My Sunday visit to Kings College Hospital to your A and E department was a very disturbing experience for me.

Firstly, the time it took me to see a doctor from 9.15a.m. to 2.15p.m.

There were other people coming and going before me even with a number system.

Monday 8th November 1999

Dear Daphne,

You are not here tonight at Amity. We are all missing you. We all hope you have a very nice holiday with your family. We are all looking forward to seeing you once again.

Must go now, tea is on it's way.

Yours

Monday 7th February 2000

I am writing to you about the possible closure of my local library. It would be a great loss to me.

Monday 28th February 2000

It was my wife's birthday on Friday and my daughter came home for the day from Southport. We met her at Euston at about 12o/c. it was very nice to see her again and she looked very well. Peter was at home.

Monday 13th March 2000

I had a phone call on Monday to rewire a fire-bar which was installed in 1936. The man of the house showed me around and I was very impressed. He told me the house was a listed building in Lambeth.

Monday 20th March 2000

Tonight I brought along my watch and chain for viewing to my friends at the library. They were very interested in it.

I purchased it many years ago from my farmer friend.

Monday 15th May 2000

Dear Sir,

My wife and I stayed at your new hotel at Cricket St Thomas, at Chard on 1st May for five days. I would like to say we both had a wonderful experience which we will long remember.

However, I would like to bring to your attention four points that concerned my wife and I.

1. There was no standard lamp for reading in the bedroom.

2. There was no box of tissues in the bedroom.

3. There was only one chest of three drawers for the two of us.

4. There was no fresh fruit in the dining-room.

We have been to four other Warner Holiday Hotels and we have always been impressed with our stay at Cricket St. Thomas, except for the four points mentioned.

Yours faithfully

Monday 19th June 2000

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you about your article in the South London Press, concerning the Queen Mother and her 100th birthday.

I would like to mention that my wife and I have been in her presence at our Youth Club in Walworth Road, in south London.

Our first meeting was about forty years ago in the 1960s. The Queen Mother was making one of her visits to Clubland.

Monday 9th October 2000

Today was a very bad day with the rain falling heavily all day long.

On Saturday, England played Germany at Wembley and it was a very disappointing game. It was the last game before Wembley is taken down to be rebuilt by 2004.

Monday 25th July 2001

Tonight is very sad because our tea-maker will be leaving us tonight.

She will be greatly missed by all of us.

I wish you Carol all the very best in the future hoping you will keep in touch with us.

Cheers

Love

Monday 3rd September 2001

We are back at school without our Carol who will be greatly missed, but things must go on.

My holiday to Germany was very restful. It's many years we have been going to Germany and we are hoping to go back in May next year.

Monday June 5th 2001

I went to hospital and was told that I had to go on injections, by the nurse, at once. I was not very happy about it and we had words on this problem.

She was very kind with me about my Diabetes problem, which has been coming on for many years and was controlled with tablets.

I feel very sad with the situation of injecting myself twice a day, but I feel I am coming through this nightmare on my own.

Monday 22nd October 2001

Today I went to the hospital at 10.30a.m. to see the Rep. to explain to me the new blood-testing machine which is much better to use. The hospital has been given two machines for testing, over the next six months.

Monday 29th October 2001

Tomorrow the 30th October we are going to Uckfield to see Jim and we will be going to the market to buy some fish which comes from Hastings daily.

We will go for a meal out at the Hare and Hounds and then we will go and have tea with Jim.

We will leave for home about three o'clock and will be back in London by five o'clock.

Monday 5th November 2001

Today my wife went to Southport to visit our daughter who is not feeling too well at the moment.

My wife hopes to come back to London on Thursday at about 4.30p.m.