The town of Ventnor faces south across the English Channel towards Cherbourg, which is about 60 miles away. Sydney Partridge, born in 1922 tells us of his young days on this popular island, the Isle of Wight.

'Most of the south-facing terrace levels are so narrow that there is room for only one line of houses, each with its steeply sloping garden down to the next level. For many houses, their ground floor is below the level of the road above, so they have their front door on the first floor, many with an uninterrupted view across the Channel.

The town stretches for about half a mile or so to the left and right of the pier, until the houses merge into the cliffs and trees of the 'Undercliff' which extends for several miles to the east and west of the town.

St. Boniface Down looms over it all and the small town nestling beneath it has a unique character that appealed to holidaymakers before 'package tours' to Spain etc. took them further afield.

My memories of childhood are quite idyllic. We were a happy little family and our house was within about 100 yards of the Downs and fields to the west, north and east. There were three farms within that distance, all of which sold milk at the door. There were two different bakers whose bake houses made bread, rolls, etc. which they delivered early or which could be bought hot from their shop counters.

We used to play in the fields and go for walks on the Downs; you could walk for miles over the Downs and along the narrow country roads. There were few private cars then and if a bus came along you kept close to the hedge while it went by as the roads were so narrow.

On top of the Downs, west of our house, there was a golf course where you could walk (except on the 'greens'). There were also several shallow gravel pits with clay at the bottom, where ponds held water all the year round and they were a breeding place for frogs and toads, which I picked up and took home as pets, but which eventually escaped into the garden.

Down at sea level there were a number of coves between the rocky headlands and these were well endowed with rocks and sandy slopes, where one could find lizards, adders or slow-worms basking in the sun. The beaches were of shingle, which was not pleasant to walk on with bare feet, and the sea was seldom calm enough to make it pleasant for learning to swim, (there was no swimming pool at Ventnor). I did get plenty of interest and pleasure from looking for and at the wild life.

Life was so safe then for people that no one locked their doors during the day and although the second toughest prison in the U.K., Parkhurst, was only 8 miles away, we were never scared of break-outs. The prisoners were soon recaptured peacefully.

I started school just up the road, when I was 4 years old, and went on to the Elementary School (about a mile's walk each way), when I was about 6 years old. I stayed there until I was almost 12, when I passed the scholarship exam for the Secondary Grammar School at Sandown, 4 and a half miles away by train.

Ventnor then had two railway stations, about half a mile apart, each being the terminus for a different railway line; one to Ryde via Sandown and the other to Newport, the Island's capital.

Sandown's pupils came from the town and villages of the 'East Wight' between Ventnor and Ryde. Our only rival Secondary Grammar School was at Newport, serving Central and West Wight. 'Sandown Secondary' was an old Victorian building with about 240 pupils (about equal numbers of boys and girls) and with 6 male teachers and 4 females, plus 'the Head' and they were all treated with respect!

I attended there from September 1933 to June 1939, having passed my Matriculation exam in June 1938 and spending the last year studying for the Civil Service Clerical Officer examination, which I passed successfully.

It was rather against my father's wishes, that I chose a Civil Service career. He had been disgusted with the treatment given to him by the Post Office, when in early 1938, his eyes suffered a further attack of detached retina. He had lost the sight of one eye in 1932 from the same cause, and had 'soldiered on' with the other eye for 5 years, doing the full range of the same duties at Ventnor P.O.

It had been the normal practice in the P.O. that a sick employee was given 6 months sick-leave on full pay and then a further 6 months on half-pay before being retired on whatever pension he had earned by length of service. My father's grievance was that, soon after his second attack, the Head Postmaster at Ventnor had asked the local P.O. appointed doctor for his written opinion on whether my father would ever be able to resume normal duty. On getting the predictable answer 'no' he had referred the case to P.O. H.Q. with a recommendation for immediate retirement. At the age of 46, after 28 years pensionable service, this meant a pension of 28 eightieths of his current pay (which worked out at about 28/- pension per week, with a wife and two growing sons to support!).

My brother, Eric and I were still at school and so my mother was obliged to seek work - but what work was available to a housewife, aged 40, in a small town with no 'industry' except the summer holiday trade? They took the matter up with the M.P. for the Island and the best that he could get from the Postmaster General, was a promise to do their best to offer my mother temporary employment during holiday pressure periods. However, because of the 'Marriage Bar' they could not give her re-instatement in a permanent capacity, doing the P.O. work that she had done competently for several years before her marriage.

So, my mother signed on for 'the dole' and picked up a few months of P.O. employment in the summer of 1938, Xmas 1938 and Easter 1939. From June 1939 she was in continuous, temporary (unpensionable) employment, with the younger male staff being called up to the Services. It was not until after the Marriage Bar was lifted in 1949/50 that she became established, got better pay and commenced qualifying for a pension.

A few years after that in 1956, my mother was retired on ill health grounds at the age of about 58, and pretty well worn out by years of doing long hours of work, especially during the war when the male staff were at war.

She was the most able and conscientious clerk at the P.O. whom the entire public consulted when they were in difficulties over any Government matter. There was no Social Services Department, Health Service, and Welfare Services etc. At that time wives and mothers whose 'allotment warrants' for their husbands or sons had run out, were told 'Go and see Mrs. Partridge at the P.O., she's very helpful.'

Obviously my parents felt very insecure in 1938, my father dreading that he would go blind in his second eye, and with continual flashing of light in that eye if he did any exertion. They were obliged to cease paying the school fee of 10 guineas per annum for each of us at the Secondary School, and the evidence of their strained circumstances was sufficient for the Education Authority to make a small grant of 8s/4d per month in respect of me. This was on the condition that I had school dinners every day (instead of taking sandwiches from home) for which the charge was 2s/1d per week - so that was the whole of my grant used up!

In 1938 my brother was accepted for Southampton University, on the strength of the results of his Matriculation exam. Most students stayed on at school to pass the Higher School Certificate before going to university, but he spent only one year at university, then a year at home doing a correspondence course. By 1940 most of his friends had joined the Forces so he volunteered for the Army.'

Sydney also joined the Services shortly after his brother, becoming a RADAR operator in the RAF.