Biography, Autobiography, Old Steve of Scarborough, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom

1. Having been, at a previously appointed time, to a mucky warehouse type building in Leeds and there passing, along with several hundred others, all of us having peed in a bottle, my medical, I set off with my issued travel warrant and a four shilling (20p) Postal Order for expenses. I reported along with several others to the Royal Air Force recruitment centre at Cardington in Bedfordshire, or it was then and perhaps still is, despite constant 'vote catching' boundary changes and privatisation. Then having had an unbelievable amount of kit literally thrown at me, a bloody number stamped on everything and days and a million forms later, I was given a brown paper bag that contained two thick dry slices of bread with tasteless cheese in-between, a packet of crisps and an apple and put on a train bound, as I only found out once underway, for Padgate, which is just outside Warrington and was then in Lancashire, now Cheshire. My memories of there, a lot of bawling and screaming, wasted 'hot air', crass stupidity and 'Bull' but above all else a great leveller. It did not matter who you were or where you came from, you were all alike there and to be all dressed alike, all have shaved heads and be subjected to the same treatment made me feel for the first time that I belonged and that I was as good as anyone and that there was no reason to be frightened of authority and when they treated me as their equal the feeling was incredible.

2. I did not want to do National Service and I did not want to go into the Royal Air Force but I am glad I did. I grew up there and quickly discovered what life was all about and from there my whole life took a turn and went in an entirely different direction.

3. After Padgate there was more training and following that I ended up in Cyprus and became involved in the 'Suez Affair' in 1956, got a medal to add to my father's Peace Medal for his part time service, down the road, in Halifax and my grandfather's, earned the hard way, in the Battle for the Somme (1916) where on the first day (1st July) in less than twenty four hours there were some 60,000 British casualties. On the same day, 1st July, but in the year 1937 the 999 Emergency Services came into operation.

4. My knowledge of French played a big part during this time and my association with a Ghurkha Regiment and the Security Services left memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life. But that's all irrelevant and perhaps a bit boring and there were many others involved, beside myself, who could probably relate it all much better. It was how my overall service life affected me that is the most important. To start with we ended up with plenty of time on our hands and lots of wonderful opportunities to travel and most of it at HM's expense and so I took full advantage. Also and despite being overseas, there were wonderful opportunities to learn and that was what appealed to me and what I spent a large proportion of my time on. I took correspondence courses and attended 'on camp' education classes. Some of my associates did likewise whilst others just idled away their time but nobody bothered and everyone got on with what appealed to them most. I shall be eternally grateful to one guy who spent unlimited time and patience while he taught me to swim in the sea and please forgive me for bragging, but I became a good swimmer and that played no small part in my later life. Also I am grateful to the unknown army guy who pulled me out of a gutter, in Limmasol, after we had been shot at, by snipers, in a street and where I badly needed a change of trousers. I also forgive the guy who persuaded me to jump out of an aeroplane, on the end of a parachute, and then after I had left the aircraft and was floating down, changed his mind and never made the jump. I started to smoke when I couldn't pass up the two hundred cigarettes, handed out free, on each pay parade and thereafter had only to pay two shillings and sixpence (12 1/2p) for a tin of fifty, un-tipped. When anyone asked for a cigarette in those days you tossed them the tin and never expected them back.

5. My mother ran true to form during this period; she wrote and winged and told me all the stupid things she had done on my behalf. For example while I was away a group of friends I had made a few years back when I was in France had come across to the U/K and while here decided to look me up. She wrote and told me that she had said that I was away in the Air force, did not give them my address and proudly informed me that she had told them that she didn't think I would be interested, as it was all so long ago. Then added the footnote that it didn't matter because she didn't like French people. She also got me into trouble by writing to my Commanding Officer and complaining that I didn't write home often enough. I tried to explain that it was a private family matter, but all they were concerned about was that if she were capable of writing to my CO she was also capable of writing to the national press. I wrote and told her not to do that as she was getting me into trouble and she wrote again saying that they had no right to get 'cross' with me. I asked my CO to drop it and fortunately he did, though goodness knows what might have happened if she had not let it drop also. Also whilst I was away both her and my father were not at all kind to my wife and went to great lengths to make life uncomfortable for us, including writing to me and hinting that they didn't think she was behaving as she should. After that I didn't write to them very often and from that time on kept them very much at arms length. There was an evil streak showing there that I didn't like. When I finally got home it was to find that my mother had given away everything that I possessed, saying that I was married and didn't need them anymore and that included all my cloths and some very treasured possessions. It was a good job I had left my tool kit in the safe keeping of my 'Boss' otherwise they might have gone the same way. But my service days wised me up to a lot and in particular to my parents and from that there was a split, that despite the constant interference and pathetic attempts made by them to create a 'good' family, my sisters also, my conscience, and the constant prompting from my wife, particularly in the early days, before she wised up to them and finally turned, that would last until they both died.

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