ON ACTIVE SERVICE ABROAD
1947 Battle soldiers meet in far-away places 1948   

     The war in Europe was over, but many of us younger ones had to soldier on, there was  still a dangerous job to do in the Middle East. After acclimatizing in Egypt, we were assigned   to keeping the peace in Palestine.  As it turned out, I wasn't the only soldier from Battle in the Holy Lands. I was very lucky, and extremely surprised, to meet several lads from my home town. We all shared the same teachers at "The Battle and Langton School" in Marley Lane.
 I shall never forget that Michael seriously injured my leg with a spade in 1939 when we were digging Air-Raid shelters for the school in an adjacent field. I still have the scar.

                  Palestine                          Cyprus

      
    

   I met Michael Poole (left) at Mount    Scopus Camp in Jerusalem. He was    just   visiting the Holy City with his    company   of Grenadier Guards. How    he knew   that I was on Mount Scopus    I cannot   remember.
   I was operating the Irish Guards    Military Exchange switchboard in an    old Nissen Hut, and suddenly, there he    was, in the doorway, and I couldn't    believe  my eyes. 

   I met Godfrey Lade (left) in a British Military Leave    Camp named "Golden Sands", in Famagusta, Cyprus.
   (A tented camp, long before today's Holiday Hotels    were built) We had both chosen to take leave from    various parts of the Middle-East at the same time.  I    didn't even know that he was in Palestine.  Godfrey was    serving with the 4/7th. Dragoon Guards, and, on release    found employment with Till's Ironmongers in Battle
    High Street, where he worked for many years.