Page 58 - br-sep-2022

September 2022 September 2022

Towards Maiden Castle
OBITUARIES
Where once I walked across the Duchy land
wanted to be up there with them.” At second attempt he was just up the road from the town where I was born,
admitted to the RAF as a trainee pilot. The RAF trained in Canada now pseudo Italian squares of buildings stand,
and southern Africa at this time because the weather was reliable so the no more those bleating flocks of Dorset horn.
trainees could fly every day. John spent time near Bulawayo in Southern
Rhodesia and by mid 1944 became a Flight Lieutenant. Most of his Where once brown hares would lope and play
contemporaries were directed to Fighter Command and went to Italy; John right by the chalky track beyond the farmyard wall,
was directed to Bomber Command and the Pathfinders. now brick and rendered houses line the way,
no more the high pitched two tone lapwing call.
After VE Day he fully expected to be drafted to Germany or Holland. He had
recently married Eileen. The RAF sent him to India. “Everything about it was a Where once I found an ancient coin from Rome
puzzle” he said. Why did he have to spend over a year there? The British were just by the track, unearthed by farmer’s autumn plough,
preparing to leave India. He drove lorries, often heading a convoy of 20 (RAF now the southern bypass skirts my former home,
man at the front and rear, the rest Indian drivers) and then they were no more those herds of sheep, no grazing dairy cow.
systematically rendered useless – destroyed beyond repair. He oversaw the
destruction of military bases – maintenance buildings, canteens, dormitories. Where once I passed the probing rooks and crows
The likelihood is that the British were putting these facilities beyond use in the towards the encircling ramparts of that historic mound,
event of a civil war post-independence. now the traffic noise and spreading housing rows,
no more the avian hordes and cackling corvid sound.
But he saw a tiger, loved the country and played a lot of cricket.
Where once I walked those seventy years ago
He was demobbed in 1947 and returned to Morden and Boots. Eileen had the times have changed, the passing years have flown,
given birth to Janice (Jan) and they later moved to Woking. He joined ICI for
a time and then was offered a job as a salesman for Allen and Hanburys. He though with the pace of life, the needs of people grow,
covered central southern England and in 1953 moved to Alresford, yet still beyond, that ancient fort I’ve always known.
Hampshire. A & H produced inhalers and other respiratory aids and this
became John’s chosen field.
The Fish of the Sea and fishes so tiny and small,
Richard had been born in Woking in 1952 and Nicky was born in Alresford. He there are pipefish, guitar fish,
played hockey for Winchester and cricket for the local teams around There are goatfish and catfish, sunfish and starfish,
Alresford. boxfish and flatfish though starfish are not fish at all.
and fishes that glow in the dark,
In 1966 he was promoted to head office for A & H and moved to Westmill in there are sailfish and oarfish, There are monkfish and clownfish,
Hertfordshire. He and Eileen stayed there until the move to Briantspuddle. He blue fish and brown fish
enjoyed travelling the country giving presentations about respiratory issues, swordfish and sawfish and fishes like jewels in a crown,
inhalers and nebulisers. A three day trip would and even a hammerhead shark. there are hagfish and catfish,
inevitably include nice dinners with the doctors and There are parrotfish and dogfish,
frequently a game of golf. St Andrews in Scotland lionfish and hogfish stonefish and batfish
became a favoured venue. and fishes that swim upside down.
and fishes that take off and fly,
A colleague who was appointed by John in the there are strange fish and odd fish, There are lone fish and shoal fish,
1970s said “John was an early advocate of the work/ white fish like codfish, and then there's a coalfish
life balance” – when John interviewed him he was those fishes we batter and fry. we also call coley or saithe,
more interested in his cricket and hockey than his all these fish in the sea,
knowledge of pharmaceuticals. There are short fish and long fish, just where can they be
big fish and strong fish when I go to the beach for a bathe?

20 57