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See our Home Front online exhibition here

VED

Welcome to our online exhibition about life on the Home Front in the local area during World War II. Click on the downloadable PDF to have a look at words and images from local people as they talk about their lives and experiences during this time, as now we celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE ...
Boer War Meant Bully & Biscuits All The Time (5 April 1974)

TRM/061

When you’ve shouted “Rule Britannia,” When you’ve sung “God Save the Queen,” When you’ve finished killing Kruger with your mouth, Will you kindly drop a shilling In my little tambourine For a gentleman in khaki ordered South? That was the top pop song of the Boer War, the 75th anniversary of which falls later this year. I was not born until six ...
Letter Writers Help To Put Record Straight (10 May 1974)

TRM/066

If there is one sure thing about writing a column of this kind, it is that you live and learn. And at time you live and unlearn too. Right from my first article – now nearly 70 weeks ago – I have frequently mentioned that I have no first-hand knowledge of Bletchley prior to 1946, which ...
The Secret Of That Dad's Army Joke Of 1904 ( 19 July 1974)

TRM/076

The path of the local historian is bestrewn with pitfalls, especially when he (or she) writes of events which he himself cannot exactly remember but which older people can. This happened in 1952 to no less an authority than Sir Frank Markham – then Major S.F. Markham, North Bucks MP. That year saw the publication of ...
A Big Crowd Today Is Trifling In Comparison (26 July 1974)

TRM/077

Today, when I read there has been a “big crowd” at this or that local event, I wonder if it is generally realised what a big crowd really is in local terms. I have never seen a figure actually stated for a local event in recent years. I guess, however, that a figure of 5,000 ...
Historical Polish For My Car (17 January 1975)

TRM/101

From time to time newspaper offices are invaded by students seeking information on local history or on some aspect of it for their theses. Quite often I myself used to be drawn into the exercise, though I could hardly afford the time. Sometimes I wondered what the eventual theses would be like. I never saw ...
There's No Medal Good Enough (14 February 1975)

TRM/105

From time to time in previous notes I have referred to the tremendous amount of work done by civilian women during the 1939-45 war, but without going into details. The truth is that 30 years later such details are difficult to find. For the most part, women did a job. Then, when their service was no ...
A Publican Who Sold Home Brew (6 June 1975)

TRM/121

Occasionally there comes into the hands of local newspapers material which is of historical interest. This happened to the Gazette in 1949 through a letter from Mr E. Troughton, who lived at Weymouth, but who spent the first 19 years of his long life at Water Eaton in the 1870s and 1880s and who often ...
One Of Those Good Old Summers (28 August 1975)

TRM/132

One day during the recent hot spell I was in a works canteen. It was hotter there than in the works and I admit I felt suitably frizzled. Three or four lads in their late teens and early 20s came in. They were puffing and blowing. Then another chap who could not have been older ...
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor (12 September 1975)

TRM/134

On the day Milton Keynes children went back to school after the summer holidays, a woman came on the radio (I nearly wrote “on the wireless”) and talked for a few minutes about children’s games. Not the sort of organised games they play at school, but the sort they play when they are out on ...
So Much For Hard Times Of 1975 (5 September 1975)

TRM/133

In my article last week on the summer weather I mentioned that according to one source of information 1921 was the driest year this century, with a rainfall of only about half the norm. I have special cause to remember that long warm summer, for my father was a coal miner and that year saw the ...
Paying A Penny To Repair Bully (10 October 1975)

TRM/138

Some recent notes in this column have stirred memories and people have kindly got in touch with me to tell me so. One is Mr Wal Pacey, of Bletchley, who was reminded of the celebrations held at Tolpuddle, in 1934, the hundredth anniversary of the Martyrs’ transportation to Australia. In the decades since the war Wal has ...
A Family's Brush With Industry (22 August 1975)

TRM/131

The pending closure of M A Cook and Sons’ brushworks in Victoria Road, Bletchley – a voluntary dissolution, not made for any financial reasons – will leave Beacon Brushes Ltd. the sole remaining representatives of an industry on which the town formerly relied for a good deal of its employment. Indeed, it is not too much ...
It Began With Dots And Dashes (17 October 1975)

TRM/139

In 1896 Signor Marconi was conducting his early wireless experiments on Salisbury Plain in co-operation with the British Army. They were using aerials held aloft by kites and balloons. Maintaining liaison between the transmitter and the receiver was young Sapper Alfred James Peerless, later to be the father of Mr Ken and Mr Bob Peerless, ...
Sir Frank's First Real "Break" (14 November 1975)

TRM/143

In almost every case of “local boy makes good” there is an original “break” – some piece of ingenuity, luck, wisdom or derring-do that puts him on the road to success. I have noticed this many times when interviewing or even just talking with such men in their more expansive moments. There is often a catalogue of ...
Those Years Of Setting Up House On Dockets (27 February 1976)

TRM/157

In July, 1948, the local butchers’ association issued a poster. This stated that “owing to the recent reduction in the fresh meat ration and the lack of publicity from official quarters in regard thereto,” they felt it necessary themselves to announce to the public that: “The total ration per adult book per week is: fresh meat ...
Military Men And Politics (30 April 1976)

TRM/166

When writing about Monty three or four weeks ago, I was struck by the resemblance between his early military career and that of a former Bletchley county councillor, the late Brigadier E G Earle, of Walton Hall – now the seat of the Open University. At the time of Monty’s demise, writers and broadcasters pointed out ...
Tragedy Ended His Gold Medal Dream (18 June 1976)

TRM/173

I suppose that if I start talking about Constable just now most people will think I am referring to the bicentennial of John Constable, the great English landscape painter. This year, however, sees an exciting event of a different sort – the Olympic Games in Montreal. And the Constable I am talking about is not John, ...
Worlds Apart In Sport (9 July 1976)

TRM/176

While writing my recent article about Bletchley’s Olympic runner, Charles George Constable, the thought came into my head that sometime I might look back on local athletic and sporting achievements with a view to finding the best all-rounder Bletchley has even produced. I have now chosen my man and I nominate him not only champion of ...
The Farm Lad Who Became Bishop (23 July 1976)

TRM/178

Two or three weeks ago the Sunday morning service on the wireless came from Washington. As I happened to be washing-up at the time, I thought this quite appropriate and I enjoyed the first hymn, which was to the tune of Glory, Glory, Hallelujah. Then the preacher explained that the service was not from the ...
Short Shorts at Fenny's Own Mystery Marathon (6 August 1976)

TRM/180

Women are fond of saying that men remain boys at heart, however old we become. I think that is true of most of us. What other explanation can there be for our continued interest in sport long after we ourselves have ceased to take an active part? After all, there is no real importance in, ...
Hero Jim And The Runaway Train (22 October 1976)

TRM/190

One April morning in 1909 Bletchley Railway Guard Jim Bates set forth on a routine trip that was to make him a national hero before the day was out. Jim was a middling-sized man, aged 45, and lived in St. Martin’s Street. He and his wife had several children and had just recently celebrated their silver ...

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