Chapter 1

September 1943

After the summer holidays I was back at the City of Kerslake Grammar School, now in the Fourth Form even though I wouldn't be fourteen until my birthday on September the thirtieth.  I was the second youngest in our class of seventeen boys, Nobbo Clarke  was two days younger than me and Benno Crabbe two weeks older.  One school rule was that you had to wear shorts until you were fourteen so Nobbo, me and Benno Crabbe were the only three left in our class wearing them, just waiting for our birthdays and through solidarity keeping together.  Needless to say the first couple of days were a bit hazardous especially when encountering the parallel Fourth Year, 4S, whose members, all of them in longs, took the mick prodigiously.  I resolved early on to keep out of their way except, of course, our lot were pretty noisy 'bout our attire as well.

     "Here come the three O's, three little maids are we!" was one of the less stressful greetings we encountered on entering the Form room on Thursday the ninth, the first day back.

     "Shut up! Barnes!" bellowed Huggy Puggy our new Form master.  Barnes shut up but prodded George Clegg sitting in front of him and whispered something obviously very funny about us as Cleggy guffawed loudly.

     "Clegg, still acting the fool.  Hasn't grown an inch in intellectual stature over the past six weeks of glorious English summer, have you, boy?"  Hugo Pugh's fine bass voice echoed round the room, "Clegg, I hope you and I will come to our usual amicable arrangement that I won't bother you if you don't bother me, not only in mathematics but now that I am your Form master, eh, lad?"

     Cleggy mumbled something which Huggy couldn't catch.

     "What's that, lad?"

     "Please sir, I have grown two inches taller over the summer."

     Huggy grimaced, he was always grimacing but we had learned early on that his bark was worse than his bite.  "I am gratified that you have achieved something by no doubt eating your mother out of house and home but I have the suspicion, mathematically, that growth in bodily stature with you is inversely proportional to growth in intellectual stature, eh, lad?"

     There was a slight titter at the back of the class as some wag made a comment which I didn't hear and Huggy chose to ignore.

     "Right, 4K, let's get on with your timetable and all the other domestic matters without the idle chitchat so beloved of the younger members of this school.  You are now on the verge of senior membership of this glorious establishment and the long shadow of the public examinations is upon you."

     When Huggy got going there was no stopping him.  Actually, even Cleggy liked him, their warfare only went skin deep and harked back to the time when Cleggy was having trouble with simultaneous equations. He's much more interested in History and Biology in any case which he says don't need mathematics but Huggy overheard him say it that fateful day and got in a fearful rage which boils up whenever Cleggy incites him.

     The three O's, Benno, Nobbo and me, Jacko Thomson.  Really I'm Jacques Pierre Francis Thomson but known universally to all and sundry as Jacko.  My mother, Jeanette, is French and I gathered the three first names from her father and grandfather and my dad's father.  Jacko I acquired at infant school and it's stuck ever since.  Ma came over to England in 1929 from Alsace-Lorraine after having married my father who had done an engineering degree at Manchester University and had met her on an exchange visit to her home town while doing his higher degree.  I arrived on the scene soon after.  Pa finished his degree and we all moved to Kerslake in 1932.

Dad doesn't say much about what he does but he didn't get called up at the beginning of the War and spends all manner of hours in charge of some project at 'the works'.  It must be something important as he has to go down to London quite regularly with reports.  Ma, of course, is also fluent in German and used to teach it and French at the Girl's High but she now has some job or other translating also at 'the works'.  My only benefit from all this is that I've had a head start in French at school because Ma has always talked to me in three languages.  She's also a marvellous cook.  My only other accomplishment is that I've been learning to play the piano since I was eight.  Mrs Tring, my teacher, says I would be quite good if I practised more.

     As I'm often left to my own devices I've usually spent a lot of time with my best friend, Tony Marcham, who is just over three months older than me.  I've known him since Infant School and we went up Junior School together and both won scholarships to the Grammar School.  We've always worked well together and although I'm almost the youngest in the class we generally come near the top although I'm much better at Maths than he is.  I hadn't seen very much of him over the summer because soon after we broke up his Gran was ill so he, his mother and his younger sister went to stay with her.

      I did know that he had been to Scout camp but otherwise I'd had no contact and for the first two days back I was too preoccupied with settling into school again so hadn't had time to catch up on chat.  Also he seemed rather pally with Cleggy at the moment having been to camp with him and Cleggy was the main pain about our attire.  Then, as we were leaving on Friday afternoon he came up and asked if I was going straight home and, if so, would I wait and we'd ride home together.  We both lived about a mile and a half from the school in adjoining roads and often cycled to and from school together.  I waited by the bike sheds for him, ignoring sarcastic remarks from two or three of the Form including Cleggy.

     At long last Tony came hurrying round the side of the school and as he rushed into the shed explained as he went, "Had to see Cleggy as we've got a camp reunion tomorrow and Sunday to finish off our badges and then we are being examined Monday evening."

     Both he and Cleggy and half a dozen of the others in the class were fervent Scouts and spent inordinate amounts of time tying knots and lighting fires to acquire an armful of badges.

     "I don't know why Cleggy is so mouthy about the three of us left over when he'll spend the weekend in shorts," I complained as he reappeared.
     "Yeah," he said, "I suppose it's the difference between when you have to and when you want to.  Me, I take it as it comes."

     Although I felt a bit peeved about Cleggy and his mouthy ways Tony's argument was quite reasonable and that's what I liked about Tony. He never seemed too bothered about anything though he could be a bit fussy and self-important at times.  And I suppose, because he worked steadily and well and had a sensible air about him it quite charmed the beaks who concentrated on the more rowdy elements like Cleggy and Barnesy.  All in all, I got on very well with Tony.

     We rode off home together and rattled on about what we had done over the summer.  When we got to his house he said why didn't I come in for a few minutes as his dad had had his room redecorated while he was away in the summer and I should see it now 'cos it was just as he wanted it.  His Mum was in and greeted me quite effusively.  She liked me as she said I was always nice and polite and was forever comparing me with Tony, who was as blond and curly haired and talkative as I was dark with straight locks and quiet.  

     "My, you've grown since I last saw you!"  She looked at my legs, "Oh, but haven't yet attained seniority!"

     Tony grinned and said I still had to wait until half term before I was eligible.

     "Have they been unkind to you?" asked his Ma ignoring him, but he had to have his pennyworth.

     "Of course!  Him and Benno and Nobbo, they're the only three left, the young'uns.  You should see them all clinging together in case they're teased."

     Why all this inquest?  I indicated I was not rising to the bait and said to Tony's mum that I wanted to have a look at his room.

     "Of course, go on up, but don't be too long as Gran is staying with us and we have to have tea soon.  Do you want to stay to tea?"

     I said no as Ma had promised us something special tonight.  Tony's mum, who knew from experience my Ma's cooking, said she was envious and waved us out of the kitchen.

     I was envious too when I saw Tony's room but I wasn't letting on.   It was all fresh and clean with none of the untidy muddle of my room which I was forever being told to clear up by Ma.  

     "I like the doors," I said, "Pity the painter didn't have enough paint to do the walls as well!"

     "Shut up, Jacko, you can see it's all been done just as I told Dad. He let me choose the colours from his catalogues."

     His father did rather indulge him and his sister and obviously could afford to as he owned the biggest estate agents in the town, a snippet of information I had overheard our next-door neighbour, Mrs Peters, telling Ma.  I had a good look round while Tony put his school books on a shelf.  

     "Hey, Jacko, did I tell you we had a fabulous time at camp.  We were right by this farm and the farmer showed us round and we went and helped with feeding the animals."

     I suppose to townies like us such events might sound idyllic and memorable.

     "I've also done the tests for two more badges and we're being tested for another one next week - here have a look!"

     He scrabbled in a wardrobe and chucked over a khaki shirt with four badges on it. I was then given a lecture on the difficulties and differences of each and how he and Cleggy had got full marks and what a good bloke he was and they'd all been in this big tent and he thought they could easily get more badges.  Then we heard his mum call up the stairs that tea would be ready in two minutes.

     "Can't miss that, pity you won't stay and save me from Gran's insides, she could tell you all about her problems."

     He stopped a moment and eyed me rather quizzically.

     "By the way Jacko, something I wanted to tell you."

     "What?"

     "Well, you know what some of the others in class said they could do last term?"

      I was a bit puzzled, someone was always boasting of something, "No?" I queried.

     "You know, diddling your thing and making it happen, well I can now.  I found out just before I had to go up to Gran's and then I went to camp and found out more..."

     His mother called up urgently, "Tea's ready!"

     "...I'll have to tell you another time, I'd better go and you'll be late as well if you don't hurry."

     With that he rushed down the stairs and left me to make my own way down in a rather thoughtful mood.  I said cheerio to his mum and waved through the door at his Gran who was already tucking into a plate of something or other, internal problems or not.  On the way home I pondered on what he had said about diddling his thing and thought back to my experiences with cousin Alun a few months previously.