Who was "Dave Punchard by Ade Punchard

I joined the GPO in February 1963 in the London N.W. Area as a 16 year old Y2YC and started my career at Hendon. My first appointment was on UG Construction with some rather hairy, very masculine men. When asked my name I of cause proudly replied Adrian to which their response was “OOH where’s your hand bag sweetie”.

I soldiered on through U.G. Maintenance, O.H. Construction, etc ignoring remarks like “with a name like Adrian you should have been a hairdresser, is your hobby ballet dancing? and backs to the wall lads here’s Adrian” until I went on to Sub’s Apps. Fitting. Here I was put with a fitter who kept addressing me a “Dave” despite me correcting him for weeks. He had just lost a friend called Dave and I think he did it just out of habit. I was now introduced as Dave and all around took the lead and the name just stuck. I went on to become a TOIT on Internal Construction and was lucky enough to get a transfer down to the Brighton Area in 1967.

On my first day I reported to Jim Leake at Eastbourne, he asked my name to which I replied “Adrian”. “What?” said Jim, “Adrian” I replied again “Who? said Jim” “Adrian” I replied again” “No I didn’t catch that” said Jim. “It’s Dave” I said resignedly. “Welcome to Eastbourne Construction Dave” said Jim and that was that till I retired in December 1994.

Now I am a civilian again I am pleased to have lost my alter ego and I am now known once again by the name I was christened, Adrian shortened to Ade.

A RELAXED POSTING by Bob Milton

A relaxed posting to army wireless chain squadron in Ceylon(AWC).

There were AWC squadrons at Army HQ’s in England, Singapore, Egypt and Ceylon. Ceylon had been independent since 1947 but there were still remnants there. I was sent in 1949 to the transmitter detachment at Ekala, between Colombo and Negombo which at that time was still an RAF airfield.
When I got to Ekala no-one knew I was coming, and it was suggested that I should say hello to the OC, who seemed rather surprised when I saluted him. I found out that apart from pay parades it was not usually so formal.
There was an ex-boy radio mechanic in the transmitter hall whom I had met in Eastbourne when he visited his granny. At midday we went in a truck to where we were billeted in the Radio Ceylon compound. This used to be Radio SEAC. There were still BBC records surviving, which were once played by the DJ’s.

We went to the mess hall and I said where do we get served. I was told to sit down and Derek called out for “Willy”. Willy was one of the Sinhalese cookhouse helpers and at mealtimes he acted as a waiter for the English ‘Masters’, which was the customary way of addressing us. You can imagine that at the age of 19 I was a bit taken aback.

I found out that we were also served by a room boy named Sidaman who looked after our billet. He cleaned our kit and made our beds as well as sweeping up, he used to look after our laundry and do all sort of odd jobs for us. He was a lovely fellow and used to get many things like free fags and anything else which we didn’t want. He used to start his work before we were awake without disturbing us and used to bring back our laundry at the end of the day and clean our kit ready for the morning.

Another important chap was Peter the char wallah. On the minus side, Peter smelt rather strongly. One day someone gave Peter a big block of carbolic soap and a scrubbing brush, together with instructions. About two hours later Pete returned, smelling sweetly. The next day Peter was back to normal.

PROPER PROCEDURE !! by Bob Milton

It was in the middle of the night at Ekala in Ceylon. The Army had closed down the transmitters used by Army Wireless Chain Squadron that used to radiate to Singapore, Egypt, England and Australia. A couple of us were left to maintain the VF landline connections for the RAF and Navy transmitters nearby.

The transmitter hall

We were guarded by the Ceylon Army.
On this occasion I woke up and decided to have a walk about. I went from the billet to the transmitter hall which was next door. On leaving the transmitter hall, a voice called out “Halt, who goes there!" I saw the Ceylon Army sentry clearly about 10 or 12 feet away, as the site was always well lit at night. I replied “ Don’t be daft it’s me”
He responded “Halt who goes there” and this time I heard the sound of his bolt inserting a round into his rifle.
I called out “Friend !!”,---- he replied “Advance friend to be recognised”
I am glad he did recognise me when I advanced and that we were well protected.

The guard hut in the distance

A day not forgotten--- by Bob Milton

It was Saturday April 3rd 1943

I had been on an errand for my Mum to a shop in Crown Street, Old Town, Eastbourne. As was often the case there had been air raid sirens sounding, warning of a possible air raid. When I was leaving the shop the ‘imminent danger’ warning was sounded, it was called the ‘cuckoo’. I was asked if I wanted to go into the shop’s cellar to shelter. I lived only a little way away in Motcombe Road, so I jumped on my bike and set off. I had got as far as Motcombe Gardens when I saw some Focke-Wolfe 190’s with bombs hanging underneath them coming over the Downs towards the town. Jumping off my bike I lay in the gutter, (advised to be a safer place), and all was OK.
At about the same time Bob Oliver, a form-mate at the Grammar School had decided to shelter by a wall at the Saffrons sports ground. He saw Peter Horton, also in our form at school, go hurrying by on his bike. He went down South Street.
On Monday morning at school, I saw the next desk to mine was empty. We were told that Peter Horton had been killed in the air raid on Saturday.
That Saturday a surface shelter in Spencer Road just off South Street had been hit by a bomb. Peter’s bike was found nearby. Nothing was found of Peter, he was 12 at the time.
On that day the school secretary Miss Doris Hardwick was killed by another bomb in the Bourne Street area.

Some still think of it as "The good old days", may those days never return.

Focke Wolfe 190