A Wartime Wedding

I fell in love at first sight, but there were problems! My family objected strongly as Joan was a Catholic. Also she was told approval would be needed from the Vatican because I was not and it might take a long time to get it due to the war. In addition we wanted to marry near our homes in Kent: at that time I was in Cambridgeshire and we were not allowed south of the Thames without authority.

Preparations went ahead nevertheless and on the morning of 2 January 1941 I got up very early and walked from Holmbury St Mary, where I was stationed, to the A25 to I get a lift to Dorking and a train for London, but before we reached there it stopped where the line had been damaged by a bomb during the night. Eventually, I jumped from the train, which was on an embankment, and down to a road to hitch lifts to Charing Cross.

A wedding ring had been ordered, but I did not know if it had been delivered; so I walked along the Strand to a jeweller's shop to buy the cheapest ring available just in case. Then a train to Barnehurst and a walk to my parent's home, from where my brother, John, took me on the back of his motor-cycle to the church in Eltham. (He was allowed petrol as he was in the Auxiliary Fire Service.)

I met Joan's parents for the first time at the wedding. (I had written to her father earlier for his approval.) She wore a ruby velvet dress. Her twin brother, Lionel, who was studying to become a priest, assisted at mass and my brother, Peter, played the organ. Snap-shots were taken and we went to a reception nearby. Icing sugar was unavailable for the cake: so chocolate was used instead, thanks to someone who gave up her ration. Then back to London by train and on to Sidmouth for a honeymoon.

We were married quickly because there was always the risk that my wife would be killed in an air-raid on London where she was nursing, or I would be sent abroad, possibly never to return. In the event we were one of the lucky couples: we enjoyed sixty very happy years of marriage, despite having no home to begin with and being separated until 28 May 1946.

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