|
 | |  | |
Brian Minchin, who was born in London in 1912, spent most of his life in or around London. (The previous selection from his memoirs can be read under Dulwich in the London section of this website.)
'I only remember the Jubilee in 1935 a little, not all that much, because I was in University at Cambridge at the time. I think I was able to go to London briefly but not to visit the celebrations.
When King George V died in 1936, there was the traditional period of mourning. In those days everybody went into mourning on the death of the Monarch and that was very bad for trade. Then they had the Coronation in 1937 to boost it the other way. It was said there were commercial reasons for it as, of course, it was quite a reasonable celebration.
During the Second World War I was originally in tanks and was involved in a few desert battles in Egypt. Although I'd mentioned on my 'call up' that I was a linguist they didn't take any particular interest at the time. Later on, one or two jobs became advertised on Army Orders for anybody interested in joining this or that please apply.
One time, rather wildly, I applied for Administrator of Occupied Italian Territories which I was absolutely hopeless at. Anyway it wasn't taken up. I was taken out of my Regiment which at that time came out of the Desert. If I hadn't transferred I would probably have been killed in the great defeat at Alamein. Those remaining were moved to Burma. Some of them had a nasty time, some came back and I did meet up with some of them again.
Anyway, eventually I got a job in the Information Service which involved languages and was quite interesting. All, of course, most secret work.'
The final instalment of Brian Minchin's memories can be seen under Rotherham in the South Yorkshire section of this website.
| |  | |  |
To add a comment you must first login or join for free, up in the top left corner.
|
|
