First Vehicle

This is what my Dad calls his 'first vehicle'. 

It's a Cycle Master motorised cycle. 

This picture was taken behind Salmon Street.

 One day Peter and his friends decided to go to Skegness on their bikes (I don't know if the others had motorised ones or not but I think my Dad ended up pedalling most of the way in the end, anyway!). 

They did make it to Skegness but no sooner had they got there they had to start making their way back. Somehow, I think, Dad got left behind and was eventually stopped by the Police about midnight somewhere around Asfordby - he actually pointed out the spot when we were driving that way last week - the police looked kindly on him and were astounded that he was on his way back to Loughborough!

Anyway, he eventually got back home in the early hours by which time the whole family (and it was a large family with Dad being the youngest) were sat around the kitchen table out of their minds with worry. Needless to say Dad got a good telling off ... he laughs when he tells the story and finishes by saying 'I was worn out!'. I should think!

National Service 4

Time went too quickly and in no time we were back at the barracks.  Unfortunately, another intake of soldiers had taken up all the beds so we just had to sleep on the floor. After an early breakfast we all lined up to begin the parade through the town again to catch the train. We moved by ship again and then by train – I remember we were pleased to get a meal on the train as it was about a 5 hour journey. Outside the station there was a large area full of buses and lorries ready to take us to the barracks. Once we were settled in most of the men had to go off to do more training in the tanks and vehicles but we in the band were happy just to carry on with the music making!

I fancied myself as a bit of a conductor on the side!

One of the main things I remember doing as the band in Germany was playing at several large horse shows. There were about 10 drummers including two large bass drums.  We would start rehearsing early in the morning before the crowds started to gather. On one occasion the drummers were practising all their fancy bits and they had to end up in a line facing the spectators and come to a stop all while still playing the drums. Unfortunately, one of the soldiers playing the big bass drum slid on the grass and fell backwards and the drum rolled right over him. The Sergeant Major was not very impressed!

The show went on for about three days and, luckily the barracks were only about 20 miles away so we could get back for some rest.  We had several shows to do on the run up to Christmas. As usual the top brass officers had their fancy meals and as usual a group of them would raise a glass to the band and they all wanted to have a go at playing the trumpet.  They couldn’t do it at the best of times and certainly not after a few drinks. Sometimes they’d be there until gone midnight and then they’d finally go wobbling out!

There was another barracks next door, surrounded by barbed wire netting.  The soldiers stationed there used tanks and large lorries to move massive lengths of metal which was used for bridge building. We often spied a tank being operated by one of the Royals – the Duke of somewhere, I forget. 

The bandsmen still had to work sometimes when the other soldiers were on exercise with other companies.  We also did things like swinging over water by rope, shooting dummies, rigging ropes on trees etc.

Soon it was Christmas again and the band was very busy playing for the officers who often had family and children with them. Traditionally at Christmas the officers would serve meals to the soldiers and I’m sure we were given a good long break of about a week and then it was back to work as usual.

We younger bandsmen were taken to work in the rifle store and then later to work with other ammunition whereas the older more experienced ones (30-50 years old) were let off by the bandmaster because he didn’t want them to get any injuries to their hands and fingers. Instead they were sent to the band room to spend the time supposedly sorting out the music.

Greetings From Malta!

Whilst passing through Malta Dad & his pals came across a small recording studio and decided to make a recording to send back home for Christmas!

National Service 3 cont. (Famagusta)

Making sure my hair looks right the photos!

Here's me with some of the band members on the move in Cyprus (i'm second left in case you can't spot me!)

Always a good plan to keep on good terms with one's prospective in-laws!

Unfortunately, the remaining pages of the letter above have disappeared. It reads:

"Dear Mr & Mrs Gamlin,

I was very pleased to receive the letter from you the other day. I hope you have both had a nice Easter. I suppose Diane told you that I was going to Cape andreas yesterday, it was a very nice change to get out. I enjoyed the bus ride more than anything because we went up quite a few of those winding roads up the side of the mountaina and there was some very nice scenery. Diane told me you were all going to Skegness yesterday I hope you had a nice time and the weather was all right. I was surprised to hear you had snow last week.  It is starting to get very warm here now - even at six oclock in the morning.  I am begin ..."

This was Church we visited - in a village 14 miles from Cape Andreas, Cyprus


The letter below survives in its entirety - this is just the first page but the transcript of the whole letter is below it.

"Dear Mr & Mrs Gamlin,

Believe it or not I am writing to you.  I really should have written to you both weeks ago but being as I write to Diane quite regularly I suppose she lets you know how I am getting on etc. Even though I haven't written I have often thought of you.

I can see the weather is still quite bad in England, I hope it gets better before I get home. That is the only thing that helps to keep you cheerful out here, the sun.  It isn't the trouble out here or anything like that that gets you down its with being confined to the barracks most of the time and there isn't a lot to do in the way of entertainment in camp. I have been out for two weekends though and that was when I went to babysit for a corporal.

On sundays its alright because I go to the MMG in the afternoon to a fellowship meeting, we have tea there and then go to the Garrison chapel at night. We usually get about 8 soldiers at the MMG and about twelve at Chapel. I think there could be a few more attend but the trouble is there is always someone on Fatigues or Duties so it is impossible for them to get.  Last Sunday morning I was watching them go into the CofE service and there must have been about two hundred went in.  There is always two buses full of married families that come.

That is all I have got to say for now and I hope to be seeing you both soon. May 13th is our last officially given date for us to sail. Every day we hear a new runour or something so you can imagine what it's like.

I hope you are both keeping well and I wish you all the Best.

Yours

Peter."

National Service Part 3

I went to the bandmaster and he told me to put my things into the hut and get ready for the band room for 9 o’clock in the morning. I was a little sorry for the rest of the lads as they still had to do all their training. We saw each other during the evening and they didn’t seem to be too bothered. 

It was quite easy in the band but every Friday the captains etc. used to have a dinner and one or two would get a bit worse for wear and used to ask us to play a particular song or wanted to have a go at blowing the trumpet - even though they couldn't get a sound out of it. Sometimes we were very late back especially if they had visitors from other barracks.

It seemed funny to me as several of the soldiers walked back late at night and yet Cyprus was still fighting. One sergeant asked me and another man to come and look after his children as they were going to the Sergeants' party. We said yes but we weren’t too happy about it as there were bombs and guns going off about 3 miles away. Several times soldiers were requested to go and guard the police station for a few days.

There were a few small incidents in the town and a jeep was blown up on one occasion.  When we went out we had to make sure we were in groups of at least four and one of us had to have a gun.

Out and about in Famagusta: Me, Crush, Ray, Reg

Me, David, Baz

I remember clearly one time when we had to parade for the Governor of Cyprus. We went to a large complex which was surrounded by barbed wire for security.  We were all out on the sand waiting for him to arrive.  Finally, when his helicopter landed, all the sand flew up in the air and we couldn’t actually see him for about 10 minutes! He seemed a jolly man and inspected the ranks, going along the lines full of smiles.

Band greets the Governor of Cyprus: I'm somewhere at the back!

Another time we got wind that the Cypriots were planning to make trouble. That came at a time when we were packing up because we were leaving in a fortnight and the Gurkhas were taking over. A lot of things had been packed up including many of our rifles. There was a bit of a panic and soldiers were sent to guard the police stations. What could we, the band, do?  There were about 40 of us plus the conductor but there were only about 30 rifles so the rest of us just had to get knives, brushes, sticks and any other weapon we could improvise.  Fortunately, it only went on for three days and then the Gurkhas were ready to come in.

Everyone was pleased to be heading home again and everything was packed onto the ships. We first stopped at a country that wasn’t on good terms with the English so we weren’t allowed to disembark. We then headed to Gibraltar where we stopped for about 5 days until we were given the ‘good to go’ instruction.  It then took a further three days to get to Liverpool and, thankfully, there wasn’t as much sickness this time.  We were soon off the ship and onto the train and had instructions to return to barracks in 12 days after which the whole battalion would be going to Germany.

On parade back at Glen Parva (at back somewhere!)

It was good to be home and Diane was pleased to see me. 

Me with Diane in London, Sept 1956, the summer before I started national service -
 Diane was 15 here.

Happy Father's Day!

A special Father's Day blog entry today!

in honour of today being Dad's special day, here's a selection of photographs of Dad in no particular order ... 

With Son Martin 1962/3

Doing Dad things

Bonfire Night

With Martin at Brands Hatch, 1986?

Being President of Charnwood Chamber of Trade

Carving the Xmas turkey L-R Julia, Caroline, Mum & Dad

Cowboy Dad

Left: Ruth and Julia playing Ice Cream Vans!  Right: Martin, Julia, Ruth

Meeting Diana Dors - A definite highlight!!

Being Grandad - top left: with  Ben; top rightBen, Kimberely and Chloe; bottom left: giving Anna-Ruth a ride in the barrow; bottom right: teaching Amy pitch and putt.

With 5 of his sisters and brothers (late 1980s?) Left - Right: Lenny, Rita, Dad, Renee, Sid, Mary

Easter Bonnet 2011

Father of the Bride, 2009: Dad, Caroline, Charles, Mum

At a family wedding in 1974: Left to right: Uncle Sid, Martin, Julia, Mum, Ruth, Dad, Reg

Dad in holiday mode Left: 1980's Dad - Right 1990's Dad

loving the beach 21st Century Dad / Grandad (Anna-Ruth and Amy in the background)

Reading the Echo

Always the clown!

With Granddaughter Anna-Ruth, 1993

From Left: Introducing Anna-Ruth to chocolate; giving Anna-Ruth a bottle; relaxing with Amy.

Youngest daughter Caroline with Dad Mid 1980s

Christmas Day around 1980: Dad, Mum, Caroline, Martin, Julia

And finally:

Today!  I presented Dad with a printed version of the blog so far in his very own personally designed book bag using his old business logo!

National Service part 2

We had to polish up our uniforms ready for a special parade on the Sunday when families were invited to come.  The parade went through with the band and flags were flying for the guests. We then had time to show the guests around.

At Glen Parva Barracks (I'm far right on the back row)

Over the following days and weeks we carried on with work and training as normal and occasionally we’d got chance to go home for a while.  We carried on much the same until December.  We were told that when we came back from leave we’d be going to Cyprus but we were not allowed to tell anyone. 

We arrived back at the barracks on December 12^th to get our kit bags ready.  On the following morning we had to march through the village to catch the train and people were waving as we went past. It was a long journey involving several trains and we finally arrived at the docks at about 3 o’clock and had lunch on the station before walking up onto the Devonshire ship. We went below and found our hammocks and after we’d had food the ship was ready to leave about 10 o’clock. There were many other soldiers on board, some from the Air Force as well as soldiers from Wales and Scotland.

Postcard of the Devonshire

At night there was about forty of us struggling to get into our hammocks.  Several soldiers were told to go on deck to keep a look out and when they came back down at about 6am some of them started to be sick.  I just thought they must be weaklings because I felt fine but as soon as I jumped down from the hammock I felt a bit queasy. I got ready and made my way to get breakfast.  I went through one door, had my plate filled with food, suddenly started to feel sick and walked straight out the other door, threw my food in the bin and ran up to the deck. When I got there, there were hundreds of others spewing over the side!

All through the day you could see big strong men being held up looking as green as grass. Later things got better but there was still a lot of heaving going on!

The next day things were better as the sea had calmed down and we had a lot of jobs to do – mainly cleaning.  We were happy to call in at Gibraltar and see the monkeys jumping around the rocks. Even before we’d docked, the local men were jumping onto the ship asking us for money and anything else. Then, when we disembarked, we were greeted by men opening their overcoats and offering to sell us all kinds of things like watches and bangles etc. I didn’t buy anything from them but I did go into a shop and bought Diane a musical compact.  I wasn’t sure that it would reach her but she did get it in time for Christmas.

After this the ship then set sail again for Kyrenia, north Cyprus.  The ship couldn’t get close to the island so several large boats took us in. When we saw the mountains and trees we all thought the Cypriots were hiding and watching us and when we were piled into the lorries lots of the soldiers had their rifles at the ready. We had quite a journey to Famagusta on the south of the island.

When we arrived the Sergeant got us all into line and warned us to be careful as one of our soldiers had shot himself – luckily, it was only his toe but be careful! We were told that the corporal would allocate our tents for the next fortnight while we underwent further training.

We were only 2 days in and it was Christmas Day. We were surprised to see the soldiers running around in fancy clothes and a captain in the army was running about in a jeep and three others were running about having fun dodging in and out with the soldiers. Later we had a special Christmas dinner.

I only spent a few days in the tent because they came along asking for Soldier Peter Sharpe and I was told to pack my bags and report to the Bandmaster.