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Memories

Some cars Ian owned as a student

Some cars Ian owned as a student
 
When I was a student in Bristol the government introduce the MOT, a yearly test of the roadworthiness of all vehicles. There were three large scrapyards in Bristol and three of us Pete Crellin and Owen Jones drove around them every day before they closed. They used to keep the oldest most interesting cars complete until we had seen them. We bought the best, drove them to the University Union Car Park(no restrictions as few students owned cars), we repaired them MOT ed them and sold them to fellow students. In one year I owned thirty seven vintage cars from Rolls Royces to an ex WD Ambulance and a Troop carrier.
Several BSA three wheelers a Bean open Four seater, several Morgans Bull Nosed Morris Ford Model A Daimler Sleeve Valve Limousine a Daimler Hearse.
Petrol was rationed but each came with an entitlement I could get petrol coupons as much as we needed.
I kept an Austin Seven Saloon and an air cooled V Twin BSA three wheeler to use, the BSA had a fabric body front wheel drive until I had to do my National Service, they cost shillings a week to run. In those days we had good grants.
After National Service we ran a Morris Eight saloon, then in Nottingham at the Scrap yard I bought a Morris Eight Four seater Tourer and built one good car from the two. We kept the Morris for several years as a post graduate doing Potato Measuring in the Summer Vacations, then a Lanchester , a new Simca(our only new car) swopped this for a Bedford Dormobile to live in to house hunt to move house and to carry many children as we ofter took other mothers and families I was a teacher,which gave me much spare time. An MG then Riley RM then the family long wheelbase Land Rover which used to be owned by Lady Docker Twenty Austin A30s, one with 1300 twin carburetor and differential from a Riley 1.5 two A 40s, one with an MG engine. I converted the Land Rover to diesel with a Perkins 4203, and Rover 3.5 differentials. A Renault then a Volvo Automatic absolute luxury then three Volvo Saloons Two Estates one a converted Fuel injection very fast another Volvo saloon which was stolen and used by a gang of ram raiders who broke in and stole the keys.. A top of the range Volvo with luxury pack, sports suspension, in the middle of the night I reached 140mph on the deserted motorway. A Commer Camper which had been left in our garden by a holiday maker when it broke down. A twin rear wheel Ford Autosleeper, the Land Rover and Camper were bought by collectors and restored to original condition. Several A30s and A35s went to collectors.
A Volkswagen rear engined automatic camper, changed for a Volkswagen T4 diesel automatic Camper conversion by Aztec.
Ian


boat1
 
Will and Ada went via Glais to Pembroke Dock,Will worked in the Dockyard, Colin went to Coronation School which is about to be demolished, they opened a Garage Taxi business and generated electricity with an oil engine and sold it 39, Main Street a 6 bed Georgian house with a tannery partly inside and outside the town walls linked by an industrial lift which was still in place when I was a child. The tannery was dug out and the waste from the tan pits and other chemicals were buried at the east end of the Commons now landscaped 06 with an open stream allowing the chemicals to leach out. Tanyard used to house the hire cars, later in the sixties converted into an award winning Museum of Gypsy Life by Alastair son of Ronald. He had to sell it as a divorce settlement, the premises are now the Tanyard Youth Project.There are barrel vault medieval cellars.
Ian and Heather attended East End School (about to be demolished).We were in Coventry when it was blitzed, no doors windows water gas or electricity, so next morning we packed the car and drove to Pembroke, a twelve to fourteen hour journey then.We lived at 39 main Street with Pa Gran Uncle Tom Ron and Nancy. Colin stayed in Coventry and drove down to
Pembroke when he could.We were there when the oill tanks at Pembroke Dock were bombed and set on fire. (more to follow).
We stayed with Iris and Arthur Clague at Lawrenny,we had relations of my mother in Tenby and Pembroke Dock
Like Thalia my early life was surrounded by women with men and father absent. Ian

Ian has always told me his Campbells were on the Protestant side in the wars /splits etc and it was why they left Scotland but its only family legend

We just went for a walk on top of the hill south of Pembroke by St Daniels church and visited Ian's uncle Rons grave (And wife) it has a motto on it:
"ne obliviscaris " do not forget
We have a photo of the grave inside the motto is a boars head within a circular belt. I do remember when the children were small we visited Invarary Castle and there was a portrait on the grand stairs which looked so like Ian's sister Lorna... Thalia Aug 2008


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After the end of WW2 WD surplus material was disposed of. Victor
Gollancz and a friend bought two boats and tied them up to the South
Quay. They each had three Merlin Packard engines which ran on aviation
petrol. Ron who had patented a carburettor used by the Ford Motor
Company was involved in trying to run the engines on a blend of fuels.
This involved starting the engines emitting clouds of smoke and a
spluttering slow trip down the gut and back. Ian

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The new Coronation school was completed in 1904 on the site of the old British School. Mrs Peters describes the opening festivities: "the children of the various schools, wearing distinctive ribbons, assembled in Albion Square, from whence, accompanied by teachers and headed by the temperance band, they marched in procession to Meyrick Street, where they were presented with round tins of chocolate which bore a portrait of the King".

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Ian's mum was Christian Scientist which was equally cruel if you did not belive in her religion all the bad things which happened to you were your own fault Thalia


 
At Itchen Grammar School I took over the school sailing club, it owned a part built Torch dinghy.When we became a sixth form college we had all the physical recreation on Wednesday afternoon and we offered a whole range of activities from golf archery and sailing as well as the tradition sports from the school curriculum.

We had no money so we organised two concerts in the school hall. We had up and coming rock groups and the events were a spectacular success, so much so that we were not allowed to hold a third as it was not a suitable activity on school premises.

We had raised several thousand pounds and invested in new boats and in converting a WW Two air raid shelter into a boat building and repair workshop.

We used the schools compound near the ferry, tomatoes grew on the shore and turds floated around our feet as we launched the boats. The Sailing club was very active competed in local regattas and sailed at weekends when I trusted competent pupils to use the boats to explore the Solent. This was at the time of the last great liners the United States the Queen Elizabeth and the France.

At the New year at the time of the seamens strike the port was full of laid up liners and they all sounded their sirens at midnight, very noisy and exciting. As a family we used the boats a lot as even in the sixties the road traffic was horrifying.

We sailed all over the Solent and expolored all the creeks. We sailed to the Isle of Wight and camped in Newtown harbour in those days an abandoned wilderness. We went with the City Analyst and his family and with our potter friend Berry and Annie Pealing, Annies children were the same age as our children and played well together.

As well as that I sailed with the Ocean Youth Club and took pupils to sea. I sailed with Derek Fitzgerald on a Nicholson thirty six and we came second in the Solent Points series two years running I sailed with Sir Peter Johnson on Alysina a very light weight cold moulded boat in the JOG class of the RORC and won many races in the class. Berry and I with a crew of pupils borrowed a Bristol Three an extreme glass fibre boat from the Ocean Youth Club and entered the Round the Island race we were first over the line of six hundred boats and would have won our class except for a dispute about our handicap which was only provisional as it was a new boat very long and narrow with ply deep keel with a great bulb of lead at the bottom.. She was very exciting to sail and given enough wind could be cocsed on to the plane and we shot past even the biggest boats, but these mad rides always ended in disaster as she became uncontrollable at high speed broached and spun in a circle with the sails in the water. We then had to bail out the water that had rushed below reset the sails drag the spinnaker from the water and set off again.

On Summertime Peters second boat we won our class in the Round the Island Race and entered Cowes to a proudly played” Summertime when the going is easy “from our competitors.

We sailed to Cowes Week each year and took part in the round the buoys races and Fastnet which ended Cowes Week.

After I left Southampton I attended an HMI’s conference “the Sea and Education” at Warsash and ended the week by borrowing a prototype boat from the builders and entering it in the JOG Race around the CHI buoy and the buoy in Lyme Bay. We found the Lyme Bay buoy but the wind died away completely so we made our way to Dartmouth, we had to return to boat to the Hamble River so we were all several days late for school. I had an interiew in Buxton with Jack Longland to set up and run an outdoor center in the Peak District. I arrived home to find the invitation to the interview on the morning of interview in the county education offices in Buxton no chance of getting there by train so I telephoned the airport and caught a small propellor driven plane to Manchester, caught a train and arrived just in time for the interview. Sir Jack Longland was a pompous old fart and greeted me with did I have I good journey. I said I had just landed from winning an RORC race in the channel and had flown to Manchester, he burst out with “you Flew”“ teachers do not fly”, I said that I did and that despite everything I had arrived on time, he spluttered and foamed so I asked for my expenses. He sent the secretary to collect the petty cash box there was not enough money so she was sent out to the nearest bank, he thrust the money in my hands and I left.

I took the train to Coventry to stay with my parents, my mother had had a telephone call from Crews the Headmaster of Scarborough College asking me for an interview. I set off next day met Crews was shown the School and told that I had been recommended by Kurt Hann and would I accept the job of Head of Biology, Head of Expeditions,Officer in charge of the RNCCF, housemaster with free accommmodation and food. Each post had an allowance so I accepted and doubled my income overnight.

We moved to Scarborough with a furniture lorry and the animals and children in the back of the Land Rover.

Whilst Ian was away sailing with the four children I went around the wild and flowery bomb sites, like The World my Wilderness by Rose Macauley collecting bits of broken old china and glass and together with the children we made mosaics. Flowers and fish. I also did some oil painting a portrait of Lucy aged three months asleep in her pram with a mobile of birds given to us by Heather. I Brought her in still sleeping from the garden into the kitchen which was being knocked into one with the scullery, raw brick walls and a concrete floor.

We did go sailing as a family with the children in life jackets bigger than themselves. One time coming home in the fog just in view of the shore and we heard this loud fog horn and suddenly we were within feet of the great black metal side of the Queen Mary. We did a quick tack and just missed her. I could have touched her as she slid past. Another time we landed at Calshot spit on the golden gravel and sand by the laid up aluminium enormous Princess flying boats. We were having a picnic on the shore and had left sleeping Hamish in the boat drawn up on beach and the Danish Thorenson ro ro ferry came past and the wash filled the boat and soaked and woke Hamish. We also sailed up the river past the docks, took the mast down and up the river Test through the marshes. We often went for short sails.

I tried to avoid taking the children to the Itchen shore even in the most beautiful weather as it was so polluted and it was impossible to stop them enjoying the beach
The few times we did this they got stomach upsets. We had a paddling pool in the garden.We lived at fifty nine Inkerman road, Itchen.


 
The first crewed Round the British Isles Race was announced. The sailing directions were to leave everthing to starboard except Rockall to be left to port,rounding the west coast of Ireland and Muckle Flugga. Sir Peter Johnson wanted to enter but found it difficult to raise a crew who could be available for a month. We talked and I proposed to the Outward Bound Trust that it would be very good for staff training. I was to sail the entire trip,we changed crews at Crosshaven Stornoway and Hartlepool.
I invited Peter to Aberdyfi to meet his crew, they as arrogant young men were very confident and did not prepare for their responsibilities.
I left for Lymington a week before to prepare the yacht Alysina,we hauled her out overhauled everything antifouled her and launched in Lymington Marina.
Alysina was glass fibre fin keel separate rudder and very lightly built by Nicholson. WE were alongside Clare Francis who was preparing for her voyages we helped her when we could.
We fitted VHF and I had a Radio Licence.Peter was to be skipper with no watch keeping, I led one watch and one of my instructors the other. We soon changed this as they all proved to be incapacitated by weather and fatigue. So Peter stood a watch and we shared the navigation.
The first crew came to Lymington and Peter set up a drinks party for them, Peter invited several people who were then at the peak of Ocean Racing. Several elderly females our young men patronised them boasting of their experiences not knowing that one was Mary Blewitt who had written books on seamanship and several others who had sailed in many oceans.
We sailed for Gosport moored in the marina the night before the start, two men wanted their girlfriends to sleep aboard, we refused because we realized unlike them that this would be our last unbroken sleep for up to a month.
We sailed next morning for the start line off Southsea. Crossed the line first in our class leaving the Isle of Wight to starboard, variable winds low visibility off Dartmouth. Andrew Coghill was watch leader but got disoriented in the fog and did update the logbook as did not wish to let on that he was lost.
I came on deck for my watch and asked where were we he pointed to the chart, I said where and he admitted that he did not know, as he had entered to speed course tidal or wind direction.The sea was flat calm with little wind so I set safe course and kept a sharp look out. I saw an orange glow to starboard and did a running fix on both ends of the orange glow hoping that this was Plymouth and suburbs luckily I knew the spread of the lights, this gave me an approximated fix and I set course for the Eddystone, cross checking with radio bearings but reception was intermmitent. We ran for the distance to the Eddystone and saw the light fine on the starboard bow a quarer of a mile off. We could now accurately plot our position, Peter took over the watch, our young men were frightened by the experience of disorientation in the fog and did not see the need for recording the watch log. We picked up the Scillies and set course for the South coast of Ireland picked up the Fastnet and entered Crookhaven. We were met by two Guardi who set up a watch in a car on the quayside they had confused a yacht on the race with Prime Minister Ted Heaths Morning Cloud, and were there to guard him.
Peter and I went ashore and asked if there was anywhere to eat no but there was an actress in a cottage in the hills who entertained we walked there and ordered an evening meal, and went back on board to sleep. We went ashore and walked through the lanes no traffic donkey carts only. Met with a peat fire folk songs and a meal of steak and boiled potatoes eaten by candlelight. Warm rested and full of food we had to decide when to set sail as we were running into the deadline for when we could leave port, the new crew settled in. The weather forecast was awful SW force eight which meant we had to beat to windward to gain an offing before we could round the tip of Ireland and turn North. We set the storm jib and a trysail to replace the main and crashed to windward it was so bad that my young men were terrified so I sent the below and closed the hatch. Down below life was unpleasant everything thrown around, one of them had not closed the hatch properly so everything was soaked in sea water. I strapped my self in,but could not leave the helm to call the next watch. Two of them had given up and refused to come on deck so I kept on until we could turn North, we ran before a heavy swell and wind astern. We caught a glimpse of Skellig Michael on the beam and did not sight land until we rounded the Hebrides and turned south for Stornoway. Another crew change.
We set sail for Muckle Fugga with its early warning Radar Station,turned South to Hartlepool, good ‌wind poor visiblity off the Farnes no wind variable puffs every foot was a constant struggle setting maximum sails rigging all sorts of variations often for minutes only.
Harlepool very good welcome I slept in a motoryacht to get away Peter also. We had a run ashore, a drink and I remembered that a friend Michael Corrigan , had a nightclub, we were on a double decker bus on his last trip, we talked to the driver offered him £25 if he would take us and back and we would take him in.
He agreed we were driven twenty miles spent time in the nightclub and he drove us back to the Quay.
Set sail for home,good visiblity to Spurn Point coast hopped and cut corners as there was more wind close inshore.
After the mouth of the Humber we saw no land until Dover Breakwater.We crossed the Thames Estuary buoy hopping navigating from one the next not able to see them until a couple of cables the noise of engines sight of wash but no sight of another vessel. Round North Foreland close inshore a glimpse of rocks.Dover was terrifying no visibility rumble of heavy engines all around but no sightings. After crossing Dover Harbour entrance the channel became relatively peaceful we picked up the Fort in the Solent and felt our way to the finishing line. Thalia had come down from Aberdyfi for the finish a stay with Peter and back home.
The race was very successful, but as staff training it was a disaster Three macho men had given up one ended in a Mental Institution for them it was a voyage too far.



CSnursingservice
visitingnursing

foodparcels1
 
I am trying to remember the war and afterwards. We lived in Coventry, I
do not know whether food parcels were specific to Coventry or from the
Christian Science Church, I doubt it as it was not their style to help
the less fortunate, they deserved what they got for not thinking good
thoughts. he parcels were from specific people we wrote back to them and
thanked them. Tins of meat, tins of cheese, dried fruit and nuts.
In one parcel there was a mans suit light blue with a chalk pinstripe.
Double breasted with wide lapels and turn up trousers.
It was altered for me to wear when I went to several universities for
interview. Liverpool , I went on the train and stayed with an aunt a
sister of mothers.I explored Liverpool, all round the docks with a ride
on the overhead railway. I was offered a place but Liverpool was really
run down and poverty stricken. It fitted my criteria it was on the sea,
had an RNVR Contingent (so that I could serve my National Service in the
Navy).
Bristol on the train to stay with an uncle in Blaise near the castle
in a council house, interviewed and offered a place another RNVR
Contingent but what a clean grand city so I chose Bristol.
London Wye College offered a place to read Agriculture but I was not
convinced It was realy a home for the sons of the landed gentry, very
expensive to survive.
Ian


 
OBITUARY (shortened version)

Pembroke has been deprived of one of its best known citizens and businessmen by the death at Glangwill Hospital on Christams Eve of Mr William Horatio Campbell who was in his 90th year. Mr Campbell who was a native of Derbyshire but had strong family ties with Scotland.He was particularly proud of his association with the Campbell clan. He came to Pembroke dock as a marine engineer shortly before the 1914 war and remained there until its closure in 1926.He was the founder of the well known garage which bears his name in Pembroke's Main Street .A very active man all his life, he was a keen sportsman in earlier days. He never lost his interest in any manly sport and throughout his life was a keen angler. He knew all there was to be known of the sport and spent much time in his retirement years with his rod and line.During the last war he was the oldest Home Guard in the borough and district. Mrs Campbell (widow) was unable to attend the funeral owing to illness. The deepest symapthy is extended to Mrs Campbell which has robbed her of her lifetime helpmate and companion.


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Main Street Pembroke today

Main Street Pembroke today

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