HOME AT LAST
WE disembarked from the ship and I was surprised to find that we were expected to go through customs. There hadn’t been any such requirement on entering France some years earlier!
Now the war was over normal procedures were back in place. I remember the customs official asking me what was in my kit bag before marking it with a chalked cross.
I next boarded a train to Woking where we were all gathered in a de-mob centre and had to hand over our kit before being issued wiith the various items of civilian clothing. We had to tip out our kit bags onto a bunk bed then go to another hut to get our civvies.
When I returned I discovered that my personal possessions had been ransacked and many items had been stolen. I lost several items that were intended as gifts, including a bush hat that I would have liked to have kept as a memento. This was a shocking episode and a disgraceful way to treat returning comrades.
Every item of kit I had been issued with was listed in my Pay Book and had to be accounted for and returned; any lost or missing items were to be charged or had to be otherwise accounted for.
After five years of active service I hardly expected to be charged for missing items or clothing. I don’t recall whether any any deductions were made, but I wouldn’t have been surprised.
We were also supposed to keep our battledress for as long as one was on the army reserve list.
The issue of civilian clothing consisted of a suit jacket, a pair of trousers and a waistcoat plus a pair of shoes and a trilby hat. Thank you very much and goodbye!
The next part of my journey home was by train to London Bridge station, where I caught a further train to New Cross, which was about a mile from my home.
I was still carrying a large and heavy kit bag; it was now early evening and, being November, quite dark. Outside New Cross station I noticed a night watchman sitting next to a brazier beside some roadworks. I saw that he had a barrow, which I was able to borrow, and I wheeled my kit bag back home to Malpas Road and my wife Helen.
Of course in those days very few people had telephones and there was no way whatever of letting anyone know when I would be coming home. I arrived to find Helen at home with her mother, her mother’s husband Alf and some other relatives, so it was quite a houseful!
It was good to be home at last, but now of course I had to return the barrow!