James E Phillips Born 22/05/1925 London S.EMy mother was over 40 years old, when I was born & had my sister Peggy two years later; I was her third child having an elder sister Marjorie who was 22 & brother Jack 17. I can think of no one I could call Dad. Things I rememberI must have been about 5 years of age when Coddy Rutherford asked me if I wanted to see his Nan in their front room on the sofa (a curtain over her face) lay this old woman, obviously dead; (the first time either of us had seen a dead body). Coddy pulled back the cover and I recall seeing a fly flying over her face.Another thing that I recall is the way we made our pocket money. First collect all the jam-jars and bottles we could lay our hands on, then on the way to the yard that gave us money for them we reached over their fence and topped up our collection. Another holiday pursuit was to collect all the horse manure we could find in the street or from the nearby stable and sell it for a penny a bucket going from door to door. We made money, but the only thing that spoilt this was we were made to bath before eating (not a favourite pastime for our crowd). The bathing not the eating. Although we were very poor I think I was reasonably happy. My mind sometimes goes back to wartimeI also think I was a fairly bright lad at school, as I won a scholarship and went to Greenwich Central School. Unfortunately in 1939 War broke out, and both my younger sister and myself were evacuated to different parts of Sussex, this meant our education was completely disrupted. We were getting few if any lessons, in the various villages we had first been sent to. Later we were all moved to Hastings where we were able to share classrooms with the local school.I was not too happy with this arrangement so I returned home and started work. My first job was in an Engineering factory, Shields and Whittaker. The pay was around 17/6 a week, I had to give 12/6 to my Mum and put 2/6 away for my clothes, the remaining 2/6 I spent on Wine, Women and Song. I believe it was sometime in 1941 when the bombing was getting bad so Mum and Peggy my younger sister went to a relation who lived in Bury St. Edmunds and I stayed behind. I recall putting out incendiary bombs with the stirrup pump provided by the A.R.P.(Air Raid Precautions). I now lived alone and I was really O.K. Air raid shelter every night, I don’t ever recall being scared. Some mornings I would cycle to work and see the devastation all around. By this time I had changed my job and worked at Ryder & Davidson’s at New Cross, for the princely sum of £2/10/- but this was all mine now, all I needed was 7/6d for the rent. On the 28th January 1942 My Mum passed away in the West Suffolk hospital. I sat by her bed & watched her last breath. Peggy & I were now orphans & we were devastated. She was 57 years old. but she was completely worn out, due to having had rheumatic fever at least twice, there’s no doubt she had had a hard life. I recall her going out to scrub the doorsteps of the rich people who lived in nearby Blackheath. Peggy decided to return to London and until 1945, when I was called up in the army, we lived together. I did my basic training in the Royal Fusiliers at Brentwood, Essex. When the opportunity arose I volunteered to join the parachute regiment. First I went to the Isle of Wight and later to Chesterfield, Derbyshire, this was supposed to toughen us up but we were already pretty tough having been in the army for about 6 or 7 months. From there to Ringway Airport Manchester to do the actual parachuting. The first two jumps were from a captive balloon, the remaining ones (except the night jump) from Dakotas. Again I was never afraid and sailed through the course with no problems. Next stop was to a holding Battalion, which I believe was the time I was stationed at Shorncliffe Kent. From there I managed to get home for the weekends. I was now 20 years old & ready to go into action. We then sailed for Palestine where there were a few problems, which of course we sorted out eventually. This was the only action I was involved in. Just one or two skirmishes, mostly between the Arabs & the Jews. One incident I remember was when we did an exercise on Lydda Airport, At that time I was Ration Corporal attached to H.Q.coy. and while the other companies attacked the airdrome from the south we were to create a diversion from the north, and I was carrying a 2 inch mortar with smoke bombs. The scheme worked to some extent as I fired the smoke bombs into the long grass which caught fire. Before long the fire engines were called to put it out. After 14 months the whole 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade {this consisted of the 4th, 5th, and 6th Batallions (I was in “c”coy. 4th.)} returned to the U.K. We spent the rest of our service training for nothing. My sister Peggy had married while I was in the army & I felt out of place, feeling there was no room in my late mothers flat. I Joined the Merchant Navy. I did two trips to South Africa on the Union Castle Line 1st, the Arundel Castle and 2nd Maiden voyage on the “Pretoria Castle”. Then, each of these journeys took about 5 months round trip, we stopped at Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, returning via the same ports and finally Southampton. After this I was fortunate enough to sail with the Shell Oil Co. to the U.S via Curacao (the Dutch West Indies). I enjoyed the U.S. We were at sea for about 14 days and 1 or 2 nights in port (New York or Perth Amboy & occasionally up in Fall River (Mass). Having roughly two weeks pay to spend, it’s no wonder we enjoyed ourselves. We also went into dry—dock in Curacao and had a few weeks off work, spending a lot of time sunbathing and generally lazing about. There were no commercial jet planes flying in those days, so it was propeller aircraft, this was an adventure, as we stopped in Havana for a meal & to re-fuel, same again in Montreal & Gander, we landed at Prestwick about 36 hours later. I had my back pay to spend, so I started to take out the girl next door. I was beginning to have second thoughts about returning to sea. I got a temporary job over Xmas 1949 at Blackfriars Station with the Post Office. Later Norah and I got engaged to be married, and I started work as a Postman at Mount Pleasant Parcel.   This was the start of my post office career. I worked in the parcel section for about 5 years. On the 31st of March 1951 Norah & I were married. The ceremony took place at St. Mary’s Lewisham, we lived above her parents in two rooms, although we had little money we managed to have holiday each year we were happy and very much in love.
On November 6th of the following year (1952) Norah presented me with a son James. We were overjoyed once it was all over. He was really a wonderful baby. When he wasn’t asleep he was smiling. A little over two years later his sister Jane was born, we were over the moon. Around this time we were allocated a flat by the council at South Lambeth. This was fine and closer to Mount Pleasant
(I had transferred to Post Office at Lewisham a year earlier) so I transferred back to the parcel section.I then decided to move from being a postman, this meant going to evening classes to brush up on my school work and sit the Civil Service exam. I managed to pass and went on the counter at Victoria. Where I worked for the next 2 years. In the meantime On the 28th Of December 1956 we had our third child another beautiful daughter “Jaqueline”. After another two or three years we were re-housed at Slough. This time in a three bed roomed house on the Britwell Estate. I travelled up to Victoria for a while before getting a transfer to the Head Office at Slough. From there I never looked back, after a year or so I was promoted to “Overseer”. I stayed at Slough until 1977 doing almost every job going, including acting Postmaster at Iver, Ascot, Gerrards Cross, Maidenhead and Marlow. A few years later we moved again to Northol, then in 1977 I transfered to Post Office Headquarters. The main reason to get London weighting to boost my pension and lump sum in 1985 (my retirement year) In fact it turned out to be the best move of my whole career. By this time all three of our children were married. Earlier in 1980 my son had emigrated to Australia. Within a few months I was promoted to P.E.B. and later I passed the Management Assessment Board.   We made many friends at the British Legion and I had made particular friends with Roy from the Bowls section as he worked for B.T. near me in the city. Both Roy & his wife Pam became great friends with Norah and in fact we all went on holiday together to Italy & Spain. In 1981 Norah took our four year grandson to Australia.
We visited our son and his wife,and of course our grand daughter.
It was to be her last holiday. Then tragedy happened, Norah the love of my life had a heart attack and died, just one week before Xmas 1982, I was grief stricken. I truly believed I would never get over the loss but with the help of my friends and family the wounds began to heal. I took up lawn bowls and I’ve no doubt this helped. Pam and Roy were very good to me, inviting me out to Sunday lunch etc. Jacqueline and her husband John sold their flat and moved in with me. Their company was a great help. About two and a half years later Roy had a stroke and also passed away, just two months after retiring. I did what I could to comfort Pam who was now suffering like I had been. I suppose with hindsight the inevitable happened. Pam and I fell in love and a year later we were married. I went to Australia to advise my son that I was to marry again. To some it may have seemed rather quick but if Pam was to have a share of my pension should anything happen to me, the wedding would have to take place before I retired. I officially retired on my 60th birthday and married on the following day – still having two days leave owing. Since then we have had a wonderful marriage. Pam had also given up work so we were together all the time. After a few months we each sold our houses in Northholt and bought a three story house between us in Greenford. This had a great advantage of being walking distance of Greenford Legion – very useful after a few bevies! Pam’s Mum was living in Wembley and was nearly 90 years old, this meant Pam going to her daily to make sure she was OK. We decided she should sell her house and come and live with us. This was fine, she was a grand old lady and didn’t complain when we got her into respite for a week or two for us to go on holiday. In 1995 our stairs were getting too much for her so we looked around for a bungalow. The next few years were spent visiting family and friends, bowling bowls tours and holidays. We had some terrific holidays, visiting my son in Australia several times. Between 1987 and 2002 we went five times. The first two we paid full fare and the remaining ones, when young Jim was working for Qantas we were given concessions. First class travel for 20% the same as economy. We went to Cairns, Queensland, and visited The Great Barrier Reef and Sydney for Christmas. Another time we stayed in Perth for a week then on to young Jim’s at Sydney. We went to Melbourne for a week and then to Adelaide. We had a marvellous trip to Ayers Rock we had a helicopter trip over the Olgas and Ayers Rock. Another time we flew to Brisbane and stayed for a week.Our other holidays included the U.S. Canada, Mexico, Barbados. Cuba and Brazil. We have been on a few cruises one of which was to the Baltics and included St Petersburgh, Helsinki, Estonia, Copenhagen and Oslo. In 1998 to celebrate Pams 70th birthday, we went on the train through the Channel Tunnel to Paris, we had an evening out in the city and the following morning a boat on the Seine. However, the highlight of the weekend was from Charles de Gaulle Airport where we flew on Concord for two hours. This took us out over the Atlantic before breaking the sound barrier. We then flew at twice the speed of sound, and we were going as fast as anyone ever did and higher than anyone except astronauts!! Finally I celebrated my 80th birthday on 22nd May 2005 where all the family gathered.
|