Romance at Mill Farm Arrington

My Mother and Father would never have met if it hadn't been for the war. My Dad, Stan was a Territorial before the war, serving in "B" Company 2/5th Battalion of the Essex Regiment, enlisting at Halstead Essex. He was 17 years old when he was called up on 29th August 1939. The War Office decided that anyone under 18 should be transferred to Royston Hertfordshire, enventually ending up on a Searchlight Battery at Mill Farm, Arrington. This was when he first met my Mother, being Easter 1940.

My Mother Grace Arnold at the time worked on the Farm at Arrington. Also on the site at Mill farm was Sergeant John Mills, the famous film star and he as most of the soldiers didn't like the army food, so he used to go to the farmhouse, where Grace would cook his breakfast. My Dad Stan used to talk to her over a hot cup of Co Coa, nothing serious at the time only friendship.

Stan was then sent away to London for the "Blitz", where he stayed for 18 months, on sites at Edmonton and Hackney Marshes. He returned to Arrington and met Grace again where love blossomed, enventually marrying Grace at Cambridge Register Office in 1942.

In 1943 Stan was moved down to Kent for the Doodlebugs, then in 1944 he was transferred back to the Infantry and retrained at Aylesbury, before being sent to Belgium, Holland & Germany. He was part of back up Infantry to keep law and order. Stan was demobbed in 1946 having attained the rank of Sergeant Major. He then returned to Grace at Mill Farm, Arrington, where they both lived for a few years before moving on.

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