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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

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

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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