In his own words
1926-2008
I feel very proud to have been born in this ancient sand-stone cottage on the edge of the famous 1066 Battlefield
The Battle Abbey Estate became my chilhood playground, and among the fields, lakes, ponds and trees of a bygone world, I grew up to follow in the family's footsteps. My Father, Grandfather, and brother all worked as Gardeners in the Kitchen Garden and all answered to the name of "White" when addressed by their employers, but . . . as the very youngest member of "the Abbey family" I was on first-name terms with Evelyn Harbord and Margaret Jacoby who leased the Abbey and the world famous School for Girls.
School Photo at Age 13
"Lower Lake" from a postcard collection
by Ken Clarke On the
other side of the road was Mr Stace's Grocery Shop where one could buy
sherbert dabs, changing balls, and liquorice bootlaces, and on certain days
very cheap bags of "broken biscuits".
The Bus fare for children
from Battle to Hastings, Wellington Square was four old-pennies each way, or three old-pennies
to Silverhill, so my One Shilling and Six Old Pennies got me to a choice of the
six Cinemas in Hastings, and there was enough change for an Ice Cream and a
packet of Crisps in the Interval. Sometimes I would visit two Cinemas, and walk
home.
I loved going to the Cinemas. Hence
my first real job . . Projectionist at
the Senlac Cinema, Battle, East Sussex Of course I had to spend many weeks just
re-winding films before I was allowed to operate a projector, but after a year
I was able to run the whole show un-aided, and often did, during those dark
dangerous days of 1941-44. While my Chief Operator Mr.Cyril Parslow was
carrying out his Royal Observer Corps duties at Pevensey, spotting, identifying,
plotting and reporting enemy plane positions to local airfields where our Spitfires
and Hurricanes were waiting to intercept them, I would hold the fort at
the Senlac during weekdays, and on every second Sunday I would fill in
for him at the Winter Garden Cinema in Eastbourne.
I would shut up shop at the Cinema at about 10.30pm hurry home to change into my uniform, grab some sandwiches, and my gun, and report for duty at Home Guard Headquarters in Senlac House, opposite the Abbey Gateway by midnight, on every third night from 12 midnight until 6am. for a week, and then take a week off. At only 15yrs of age, and the youngest member of Battle Home Guard, I was occasionally called upon to patrol the Abbey Grounds during the night, and remember during one tour of duty helping to rescue an elderly (Dad's Army) volunteer who in the darkness fell into the famous Lily Pond. I was issued with the only (B.A.R) Browning automatic rifle in my Company and ten rounds of live ammunition which I kept at home ready for instant use at any time day or night. And, I became a Certified B.A.R Marksman by the time I reached 16.
Abbey Lodge age 15
Upper Lake" from a postcard collection by Ken Clarke
It was early December 1944 when the brown paper envelope dropped on our doormat at 13, Senlac Gardens, asking me to report, in my Home Guard uniform, to "The Guards Depot" at Caterham on the Hill in Surrey. I just thought they were just inviting me to Christmas Dinner, but when I arrived there, four days early, they gave me a brand new uniform and told me that I would be staying 'for the duration', whatever that meant. They said "The Sergeant Major will look after you like a Mother" but then they said that to all the other lads as well ! There were 20 of us including a "Trained Soldier" crammed into this wooden hut with a corrugated iron roof, with one cast-iron wood-burning stove in the centre. The "Trained Soldier" already had a screen around his bed in the corner and the rest of us fought for what we thought was the best bed space near the stove.
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Because in the Home Guard I had learned map-reading, orienteering, how to operate a two-way wireless set, (Able,Baker,Charlie,Dog,Easy,Fox . . . .it's all changed now), could fire several types of small-arms, including the Browning Automatic Rifle, and had thrown a few hand-grenades, they made me Squad-Leader and gave me a small "Stripe" to sew on my battle-dress. And so began my twelve weeks of isolation from the rest of the world, sleeping on boards, and shaving with cold water, while I too became a trained soldier. |
Guards Depot 1944 |
My first folding roll-film camera
Press Photographer 1948-53
Television and Avionics, production and test 1953-92
Retired 1992, and living near Hastings by the Sea
My father died February 2008 aged 81