start to earn a living!

I had always wanted to be an accountant. I also wanted

to become a BB Officer. I had lined up a job to study as

an accountant but it was obvious that the amount of

study required would not fit with BB work. I therefore

couple of years the Company was closed down. At this

time my wife and I were worshipping at Morden Baptist

Co.

I had never been to a BB Camp as a boy but was soon

made Quartermaster. Harold Barrett and I were detailed

to ensure that the camp’s luggage was safely lo

the next ferry and by the time we arrived on the I-O-W,

all the baggage had been loaded onto the truck and

delivered to the campsite. Imagine our sheepish faces

when we walked onto camp.

I became captain and the company progressed with some

staff changes which saw Ron Webb and Ray Holder as

Band Officer and Bugle instructor respectively. The band

flourished and each year we won the Battalion Band

Competition which enabled us to enter the All London

year ahead. We had also agreed to pursue the possibility

of holding a two week camp in Guernsey. For the Albert

Hall item we decided to envisage a sailor’s life on a ship

in Nelson’s time. This was to include ‘dancing the

hornpipe’, ‘scrubbing the decks’ ‘fighting an enemy ship’

and ‘firing three cannons’. For the latter, my research

gun-drill and pattern of the cannons which I built. The

canons were wired up by an electrical company and not

and then teaching the sailor’s Hornpipe Dance. The item

was accepted to be performed on Friday evening and

Saturday afternoon and evening. Ron Webb looked very

smart dressed in naval uniform.

The annual All London Band Competition came around

to be in the final at The Royal Albert Hall on the same

Saturday. Much to our delight the 7th Mid-Surrey and the

1st Ruislip would be the finalists. Much to everyone’s

surprise we won the Devonshire Cup, so now had to play

at the evening performance too, in addition to the naval

piece. What a day! But guess what? We were unable to

retain the cup; we lost our Battalion Competition in 1959.

the Warwickshire Championship on the same day. His

race was to be run at 1pm. We made a speedy journey

I wondered where to start. But here goes:

I joined the GLB Cadets at six years old and always enjoyed it, the officer in charge was Florie

Sutton who I keep in touch with and who is now 99 years old. Then came the war and the GLB

was disbanded. I started back at age 13 years, went through the ranks and retired when I had

my daughter Susan.

new taste; Seeing who could eat the most plum duff; Boys who went on the town after ‘lights out’ with officers out searching for

them; The time there was a GLB camp on the next site and oh so many more… And there were those super displays with special

themes. Dinners for the officers with very smart boy waiters are another memory.

Competitions. The many times the 70

won the First Aid and Band Competitions by real hard work and good discipline. Always

some activity going on at GLB or BB and it was to become our lives. Peter and I were at Brigade meetings most nights of the week

plus football and Bible Class at weekends.

them. Which brings me to say ‘thank you’ to so many of you (GLB and BB) for all the years of happiness (and sometimes sadness)

we were given. I always look forward to hearing from many of you at Christmas. I guess you will recall many more memories and

incidents of your time in the 70

– if so send them in to Reflections so we can all share them.

significance or not, both were quite single-minded and independent. At

Brudenell Road, and I remember he could still recite much of the formal

Anglican service much later. Articles in 'A Positive Contribution' add more

details about schooling etc, but I remember the beautiful green velvet

made. Also stories such as him cycling to Mitcham Common on his fairy

cycle (at what age?) It sounded very adventurous, but I'm not sure how

large or small a fairy cycle was! In his teens he cycled far and wide,

particularly to Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, to relations; and also other

routes with the sole aid of a Bradshaw railway map.

We were brought up with a loving discipline, though we worked out early

that dad was slightly easier to deal with than mum!

Mum was born 1925, and grew up connected with TJBC (Tooting Junction

Baptist Church), her mother Emma Fielden being an active member. She

was in CE (Christian Endeavour) and GLB from a young age, and attended

Gorringe Park Junior School, before getting a place at Mitcham Grammar

School (where Mary and I followed years later)

and GLB. I think mum was helping with Lifeboys as well in the 1940s. In May 1941 a growing interest really began to blossom

following a handball item at the BB display!

I am a bit hazy about dates, but both of them sung in the Church Choir at some point, and mum continued for many years,

again followed by myself and Mary.

Dad had joined the 70

in 1936, along with several other boys from Valnay Street, and though his independent spirit rejected

football, and initially camp, he enjoyed drill, and the big Battalion church-parades.

Land's End to John o' Groats. That joy in the outdoors has passed down the family generations. We visited many different

churches while away, an introduction to the wider Christian Family.

Eventually he left 'Flight'; working for other firms, and then becoming freelance as, 'ART Bowbeer – the journalist who draws',

and tackling anything – from crisp factories, to fishing trawlers and crop sprayers – and still travelling...

At Longley Road he later became a deacon, part of the Evangelism Explosion team, and publicity officer, while still keeping a

connection with BB at a wider level. When he and mum moved to Dorset in 1987 (beckoned by happy memories of 70

at Charmouth) his poster-making skills were used for Bridport, and then Lyme Regis Baptist Church.