My second job!

Thanks to one of Uncle Bill's pals, an influential man who was Secretary to a company on the Treforest Trading Estate, I obtained an Apprentice Post at Marconi's in Chelmsford. The day that I arrived I went to the swimming baths in Chelmsford and watched as streams of German bombers went overhead on their way to London. A wonderful welcome for me!

I went into digs there, joining 3 other people, on an elderly man, the two others were both employed at Marconi's. One an AID inspector, the other a boffin. My accomodation had to be subsidised from Home as my wages were twelve and sixpence per week! Jimmy Twatt was the boffin, he worked at Marcon's and was also a wireless spy to detect people communicating with the enemy. We listened to the VHF radio and the dogfight conversations from the airmen. I met up with Jimmie years later , he had married and changed his name to Watt. He came from the Orkneys.

I was looked after by the son of another of Bill's friends, I forget his name, he was the MOH for Chelmsford, another Welshman. He was very kind and even let me use a room in his house for my meddling with hobbies. He had to attend at the scene of air crashes and deal with the results. Regrettably I lost touch with him after a while. He did report my known misdemeaners which did not enamour me to him at all! He lived in a bungalow and smoked a pipe which he filled wih Balkan Sobranie and Laticia tobacco. I usually spent time at the weekend listening to the wireless with him. He once drove me all the way back to Wales in his car!

First I worked in the machine shop at Marconi's until it was bombed, drama in the paint shop where looking for bodies we found a UXB and had to get out! Then a spell in the mounting shop. puting together and wiring transmitters. After that Mr Twigg and the instrumnents, meters etc. Then echometers or depth sounders and after that radar receivers, jammers and so on. One of our pleasant jobs was to train WRENs in some aspects of radar. I once took a WREN on the crossbar of my bike! I was trusted to test transmitters at Baddow using the Church Tower echo as a measure of the perfomance. Here I met up with the Navy weather forecasters, WRENs and WRENs! Finally I joined the television transmitter group with Ned Green. Later in life I realised how clever he was using hybrids to back up transmitters! Meanwhile I continued my studies by matriculating and doing Intermediate B.Sc. before attending at Birkbeck College in evenings and Saturdays to get my B,Sc. Special Physics. I passed my Maths as subsiduary but was not clever enough to be awarded a good degree.

I was encouraged to change digs and moved to the Browns in Broomfield Road. I had a particular friend Peter Love who also worked at Marconi's and eventually joined the RAF. His father was another spy detector and had a nice communication receiver. Mr Brown was a cabinet maker one son was at home the other a comando. Mrs Brown was a large lady who loved to make sherry trifle, I hate it! We used to play cards in the evening with a Mr Harries, a city gent, a very charming person. I once visited him in the city at his office where sometimes he firewatched.
I was bombed out once in Broomfield Road, a landmine exploded 100 feet away and blew the roof of my digs away. I cut my feet a bit but watched the Bofors shells being fired probably in vain at the sky! Mrs Brown nicked the apple trees from the bombed out garden but had to put them back when it was found out!

I escaped from the Browns, where actually Jimmie Watt was our neighbour with wife and family. I went to the Hubbards in Shenfield. Sometimes getting a lift in a car to work but more often going by train. Very strangeley I met up with the boy who used to take me in his car when Ursula and I went to a dance at the Royal Liberty School. His wife was a Mary, whose parents ran a pub in avillage near Chelmsford. The Americans from Wilingale used to come to the pub and let me use their 45's to shoot rabbits! They flew Marauders, one wanted to mary Mary's sister...don't know what happened.

I went for a medical for call up and was first offered a navy posting, I asked whether I could complete my studies and was promptly passed over to the RAF. I went to Cardington and was passed as PNB material even though I had a problem getting the mercury up the tube, the examiner said "too many woodbines, never mind that", given the rank of AC2 and a number and sent home to wait for call up. As I thought I would be called up any day I abandonded my Home Guard duties as 2nd Lieut of the 101st Battalion which manned a 64 twin rocket battery, but whewn the call up didn't come had to go back. I came off night duty one Sunday morning to see the gliders on their way to Arnhem. Strangely enough I might have been one of them as at Scarborough I has been accepted as a volunteer for the Parachute Regiment as an alternative to having another RAF medical for aircrew.
I never heard from the Army but was discharged from the RAF as "surplus to requirements"

My friend "Scottie " managed to get into the Fleet Air Arm, and my friend Michael Burden was a 2nd Lieut in the Ox and Bucks and was due to go to Pegasus Bridge! I have never had any news about either. Michael worked at the hospital and when all the cyanide disappeared from the chemi lab that we used for the "brown ring test" in anaylsis for our chemistry course, he was able to go to the mortuary and see the bodies of our late chemistry teacher, wife and two children! Apparently he owed money and couldn't face the music, very very sad.

If there are any pictures of the Victory Parade in Chelmsford I will be seen, leading some of the Home Guard!

I did some scanning of photos from the Jungfrau for Prof George,(£50). had little help from Bernal, much fun with Sidday and so on. I protested about Blacket's communistic ideas when there was a student meeting on that subject! This probably didn't do me any good!

I applied for a job with the Civil Service Commissioners, was offered one but didn't take it up. It seemed difficult for the board to understand my description of the Redifusion Job and they "drew a cloud" over my explanation. I applied to the MRC for a job on cancer research but was talked out of by a member of that board who saw me after the interview and offered me one with AERE.

So I gave up on Marconi's which had already become part of English Electric, did a bit of evening class teaching at the Mid Essex Technical College which was highly remunerative and then concentrated on marriage and a move to Harwell or Malvern. I was lucky to be given the option, but was so pleased to be welcomed by Frank Goward who immediately renamed as "Jimmie", a name which has stuck a bit!

Later when up for promotion the very same Chairman who had offered me a job turned me down on the grounds that I had not accepted his previous offer of a job. So a few months later another board with a more humane chairman gave me my Established Post.

I have almost begun my 3rd job story but will leave a bit for later!