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As told by Harold Taylor...
My wedding was to be on the 20th November 1948, to Monica and by circumstance, exactly a year after the Royal Wedding. All did not work out right for this as I was on night duty and did not have any leave due to make an opportunity for a honeymoon. I did have a few hours owing to me, and I will explain about those later.
I got permission to go off duty at 4 p.m. instead of 6 and by arrangements with the other night officers, after supper I went to sleep on the couch in the club upstairs until 4.00 a.m. when I went to my lodgings.
There I got a couple of hours more sleep before the taxi was to take me and my landlady to pick up my future wife's parents at Rudgwick before continuing to Chichester.
Having got there, there was great consternation in the first place that I was not to meet my wife to be, because she was using the same house as her base. Secondly, she had gone missing.
This had something to do with the wedding cake which she had gone to collect from a reputable suppliers, but due to restrictions and shortages, when she collected it, found that it was bereft of any trimmings. Therefore, her absence had been caused by trying to collect together the necessary bits.
The wedding went off quite smoothly, however, with my cousin from Arundel playing the organ at probably the biggest gathering of the family and relatives of all time. This I think equally applies to Monica's family.
It was a lovely sunny afternoon bearing in mind the time of the year. The reception was held in the then modern hotel of the Unicorn and I believe a good time was had by all. I found it a bit disappointing in that I was kept so occupied I only managed to have about two drinks to celebrate. We left reasonably early for a weekend away.
When we got on the train we were in the same compartment as a woman and her children who had stopped to watch the wedding and said how nice it all looked. When we got to Guildford we got a local bus to take us to the hotel at Peaslake.
When we were on this bus there was a strong smell of spirits, and I was blaming some drunken sot, but in the end when we got to the hotel it turned out to be Monica. Her mother had given her a small bottle filled with brandy, and the top had become loose and dribbled out into her handbag, making the whole thing reek!
I cannot say that the honeymoon was successful, but we had a very pleasant meal that evening and because the place was comparatively empty they moved our table to be in front of the fire.
I wish they had done the same with the bed, it was so perishing cold in that room. There did not seem to be any heat provided. There was no running water in the bedroom and one had to suffice with the usual ewer and basin with a bucket for slops, and the inevitable jerry under the bed, or take a long walk down the passage.
The bed was two singles pushed together, and was either moving apart or one had this huge hump in the middle where they met.
I am sure we only had the Sunday free and travelled back on the Monday. I had to be on duty that night. Certainly we travelled back on a local bus to Horsham, where we were to take up rooms in the village of Roffey, just outside Horsham.
These rooms had become available to us as Detective Constable Ellis had been transferred to Shoreham and was vacating these rooms which were in a house rented by his in-laws. Our presence would help pay their rent also.
We had a sitting room and bedroom, and shared the kitchen, toilet and bathroom, not a very satisfactory situation in the circumstances, but could have been a lot better if dealing with different people.
This situation continued for over two years, when our landlord learned that I was moving and moved out, leaving us with the full tenancy for a short spell before we moved ourselves. We had been left in a very difficult situation as we had no terms of tenancy.
So, we struggled on valiantly in our two rooms with an unreasonable landlady who did not like steam or the smell of cooking, among other dislikes. So home was not always sweet.
The following year our first child was born at the local hospital. I was on duty that morning and had got out of bed early to take my wife to hospital, then returned home for a further hour's sleep before going on duty at 6.00 a.m.
At about 8.30 a.m. I rang the hospital and found that our son had been born. After I had my meal break I managed to go along and see them both.
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