A Reluctant Recruit

My early life was fairly uneventful apart from the scrapes and mischief to which all boys of the period were prone. Then there was the fact that the bulk of my education was blighted by taking place during the years when Mr Hitler decided to attempt world domination. But that’s another story which, given time, I may tell later. On leaving school, I was fortunate to be accepted as an apprentice engineer by the, then, Bristol Aeroplane Company for a period of five years. On completion and qualification I gained a position in the Jig and Tool Design office and expected to be there for the rest of my working life. At eighteen I met my future wife, courted her for four years and married her in July 1952. There followed two years of wedded bliss before I was conscripted and obliged (as were all fit males of the day) to become a member of the armed services, in my case the Royal Air Force. My adventures as a ‘Reluctant Recruit‘ are the subject of this volume. I decided, at the time that I would, one day, tell the story. One day was fifty years later but here it is at last.