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4man in a dark uniform was outside. Our mother screamed and then, as far as Jill was concerned, the man came in and it looked as if he was strangling her. Welcome home Dad! He was then posted onto Dakotas. After a certain amount of flying over Europe his squadron was sent to Burma, but they had not been there long when the war ended and so in 1946 he came home and went back to work in London with his firm, Smedley Rule & co. I am not sure if he was at home when I was born, or indeed how he got back. Probably by troop ship. The accountancy firm had given him a certain stipend throughout the war. Mum was very much a housewife although she did do the odd job for pin money. Before getting married she had worked at the gas company collating press cuttings I think and general secretarial work. When Dad semi-retired she would type out his letters and so forth for him. One job I remember was that she worked at our local outdoor swimming pool (Gilmays) shop in Bookham. That was where we spent most of our summer holidays and so it made sense. On one occasion a boy was accidently jumped on in the pool. Mum was nearby and jumped in to pull him out. No lifeguardsin those days. The pool and tennis courts were sold eventually and became a housing estate. Our actual holidays were usually in Cornwall. The first I can remember was when we stayed at the Atlantic Hotel in Newquay. Dad%u2019s sister had come over from Canada with 2 of her children, Janet and Murray, but there was no room for me in the hotel. And so, I stayed with Auntie Beattie in her house down the road but ate with the family in the hotel. We all loved Aunty Beatie, as far as we were concerned, she was hundreds of years old and tiny, but she was always very gentle and kind. Each year when we went to Cornwall, we usually stayed in a rented house somewhere near Newquay, and it was a tradition that we went for a cream tea at Northies. Actually, it was not called Northies, that was the name of the owners, but all the locals called it that. It is still there I believe. Dad would show us all the places he had played at as a boy. I remember splash point which I think was some-