A little about the site author.

I was born in Portsmouth,Hampshire in 1931,and upon reflection,had a very happy childhood.During the War years I was evacuated twice,once to Totton in the New Forest,and again to Winton in Bournemouth,Hants (as it was then)Back home again,and many hours playing around Hilsea Lido,a well known park area and regular play area. Many mornings,particularly after an air raid the previous night,we would be out searching the streets for shrapnel,and spent bullet cartridges.To us then,this was fun,being young and not really appreciating how dangerous it could be.

When I was fourteen years old,my Dad managed to find a place for me to start my first job upon leaving school.This was in Portsmouth Dockyard,where Dad was a Blacksmith.My wage was One Pound,one shilling and eleven pence per week,and after one year a pay rise to one pound,three shillings and five pence.Always gave the pound to Mum,and the rest was pocket money. After a while I progressed to working an engraving machine and quite enjoyed that period,not too long after that I was moved on again,this time to main machine shop,where I was trained to use a lathe,for various tasks.

From the Dockyard,I moved to a Blind Manufacturer,out on the road with a mate,installing domestic and commercial blinds,Only with firm short time before I had an accident in the workshop,where I managed to almost sever my little finger on left hand,the Hospital did a good job trying to repair damage,but gangerine set in and had to have finger and knuckle bone removed,sounds like fun???

At seventeen and a half,I volunteered to join the Royal Air Force,as a regular where I served for five years,training as an Aero Engine Mechanic.Stationed at a number of U.K Stations,R.A.F Cardington in Bedfordshire,R.A.F Cosford,R.A.F Coningsby,and R.A.F Khormaksar in the middle east,then on to R.A.F Ryan,back to Khormaksar,and then home to the U.K to the Station I was at prior to being shipped abroad,ie,R.A.F Lyneham in Wiltshire where I served for a while working during the Berlin Airlift,

I was demobbed in August 1953 and later that year married Molly,after having courted for six years.We have one Son and four Daughters,one of the latter living in Australia.There are seven Grand Children,and two Great Grand Children,Time to quit?.

Quite a few occupations were tried during ensuing years to add to those before going into the service,Self employed as a Builder (employed three),onto The Prudential as an Insurance Agent,from there on to the Scottish Equitable Life Assurance Society as a Life Inspector,self employed as an Insurance and Mortgage Broker,from that to my own News Agency in Portsmouth Guildhall Square,this almost covers it,in short,jack of all trades master of nothing,a fair summary.

Having been burgled twice in our Newsagents shop,both my wife and I had nervous breakdowns,and fled to Devon for a weeks rest,and whilst there,saw a little cottage and decided to buy it,we lived in Newton Poppleford,East Devon for close to twelve years.I retired whilst there and took part time work as a gardener,and would probably still be there,except for health problems after which my family insisted we move back to where we started,so that I could be kept under careful supervision.

Other occupations have been working for Electical Retailer,installing televisions and video recorders etc,and as a hobby I filmed weddings for quite some period of time.

After retirement,I started on family research,and early on discovered my paternal Grand Parents had both died in tragic circumstances,Grand Father whilst at work fell from sea wall to shingle twenty feet below,on downward descent he hit a protruding steel spike which almost cut him in two,he died in Hospital 1905.Grand Mother was severly burnt whilst bathing in front of the fire,she died a few days later,this was 1931,a sad start to my Ancestral Journey.Nothing more to report,at least not anything to keep a viewer glued to their computer.