Chapter one

In the beginning

 

I can't remember being born, but all the available evidence suggests that it was at about 3a.m.on 11th June 1928 at 6, St Georges Terrace, West Thurrock. Although this is now a drab industrial area very close to the Dartford Crossing and the Lakeside shopping complex., in 1928 it was a semi rural area with sheep filled meadows leading down to the River Thames. St.Stephen's Church, where I was christened was set in the open field but now it is between a power station and a washing powder box factory. It has been closed for several years but is protected as an ancient monument. I am sure the fact that I was christened there did not affect that decision. Its main claim to fame now is that it appeared in the film "four Weddings and a Funeral".It was the site of the funeral.
My father was the village policeman and our house doubled as the police station. He was often out late at night on patrol so that he was frequently at home in the mornings. He taught me to read, mostly from the Daily Express which was his only regular reading matter, and I could read quite fluently before starting school at the age of four. I think it was at this time that someone asked me where I was going to work when I grew up. I replied that I wasn't going to work. I was going to be a policeman like my Dad.
My earliest memory was my fourth Christmas when I was given a tin drum I don't think it survived long. Nor did my Indian chief's headdress. My father made it by tying a broad ribbon round my head and sticking chicken or possibly turkey feathers under the ribbon. It was great fun but I clearly remember the devastating disappointment when I was called in to tea, took off the headdress and it fell to the ground just a heap of feathers.
Another early 'memory' isn't a memory at all. Until I was about ten years old I frequently had a dream about a big black dog. It didn't seem to do anything but just stood there in my dreams. It persisted until one day at school someone asked about the two scars on my face. These were, and still are, on my lower lip and right cheek. With the passing years they have faded and are now hardly noticeable but then they were quite obvious. I asked my mother about them and she told me that when I was two years old we had a black labrador. Apparently I played with it all the time but one day I stroked another dog and the labrador bit my face. It bled profusely so my father got a hot poker and cauterized the wound. The doctor said there was no need to stitch it as the poker had stopped the bleeding. After that explanation the dreams ceased.
When I was four years old I started school . All I can remember about West Thurrock Infants School is that while there I won the only school prize that ever came my way. My father's work on my reading paid off and I was awarded a prize for reading. It was a collection of Rupert Bear stories cut from the Daily Express by my teacher and pasted into a handmade book of brown pastel paper. I wonder what happened to it!
Doris usually took me to school. She was about nine or ten years old and lived next door. She would often take me into her house after school and I think I can remember her taking all her clothes off and standing in front of me. At the age of four I was unimpressed.
Much more impressive was an airship which flew slowly over West Thurrock. It may have been the R101 which crashed in a storm over France in October 1930. If so I was only two years old at the time so I probably just "remember" the photographs my father took!
At the end of the terrace there was (and still is) a small shop which sold sweets. I remember a Sunday School picnic where the shopkeeper's wife had a table selling sweets. I was given a penny to buy some sweets and went up to the table. The lady took my penny, looked at me and said," Isn't your Daddy the policeman?". I said that he was and she filled a large paper bag with sweets and gave it to me together with my penny. About 1933 we moved from St.Georges Terrace to a bigger house at Shakespeare Cottages. The furniture went on a lorry but I drove my blue pedal car to the new house. I had to cross the main road but with a police escort it was safely negotiated! It was only a hundred yards or so away but it was a more modern house and made even more modern by the arrival of electric lighting in 1933. I can just remember the old gas lamps being removed.
West Thurrock is on the north bank of the River Thames and we lived an easy walk from the river wall. At that time there were just meadows between the village and the river and I can remember the sound of sheep bleating in the early morning. Another sound I can remember is Aunty Ethel's clock. Aunty Ethel lived a hundred yards or so along the road in St. James Terrace. She was actually my father's cousin and was married to Ernie Galley. They had a son Donald and a daughter Lilian, both older than me . Aunty Ethel's clock had Westminster chimes and even now, more than sixty years later, the sound of Westminster chimes brings back a mental picture of her living room. On the wall was a large picture of two old yokels sitting outside a country inn. Two rosy cheeked damsels with petticoat skirts flounced by. The picture was called "Saucy Hussies"
West Thurrock is not far from Tilbury and we sometimes went on the ferry to Gravesend. I was still quite small and I remember that in Woolworths all I could see was the dark wooden walls that were the counters. To me they seemed like chasms and somehow I got separated from my parents. My screech soon told them where I was. I think it was there that a teddybear was bought that survived in the family for many years.
Although West Thurrock was still a comparatively rural village, it was very close to several cement works and vast quarries, one of which is now the site of the Lakeside shopping centre. At that time the works were very active and belched cement dust into the air continuously. This was not very healthy and my father suffered from breathing difficulties. By 1934 this had become serious and the doctor suggested moving from the district. The Police Authority agreed and we were posted to Great Baddow.

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