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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Eric Harry Johnson (my Uncle Eric) - Quiet military hero and champion road walker



'ERIC HARRY JOHNSON'

[in his own words]

Early Years

My name is Eric Harry Johnson. I was born on the 8th of February 1912. My father was Harry Johnson and my mother was Constance Maud Mary Johnson. I was the youngest of three sons of the marriage. Bob was the eldest, his real name was Robert but we called him ‘Bob’. He became an accountant. Cyril was the other brother who was the cleverest of all three. He got both a BA and an MA. Unfortunately he was killed during the 2nd World War in a flying accident.

We all went to the same school which was St John’s Bowyer School, Clapham. I never really reached the academic level of my two brothers. I was constantly reminded of that by the teachers. However, after spending my time there I won a scholarship to Archbishop Temple’s School in Lambeth – where I stayed until I was 16 years of age.

I wasn’t particularly bright but I enjoyed all the sporting activities. When I left school, my father got me a job with a firm of stockjobbers on the London Stock Exchange – where, including the war years, I stayed for 25 years. After that I joined a Yorkshire firm of Wool Brokers on the New London Wool Terminal Exchange. I worked for them for about nine years before moving to the sugar market. There I stayed for 15 years until my retirement.

My earliest recollections of family life were the 1st World War years. I can remember when the Zeppelins raided London we all rushed down to the nearest Underground Station – where we stayed until it was ‘all-clear’. It was very scary.

When I was about 11 years old, the family broke up because we had not paid the rent. We got evicted from our house in Clapham. Bob went to live in digs while Cyril and I went to the Home of the Good Shepherd not far away. It was a very good home. We had a most enjoyable time there.

Work and Marriage

After that, when I started work, the family got together again and we lived in Lewisham to start with and then on to Brockley, and finally in Lee, South East London. That is where I got engaged and from there I left to get married.

When I got married the wife and I lived in 240 Clockhouse Road, Elmer’s End, Kent for 11 years. We moved on to 65 Conisborough Crescent, Catford, SE London, where we remained for about 38 years – before moving to Holly Court, Bellingham Road, Catford in 1988.

Some recollections of my early life were of food shortage during the 1st World War. Things got so bad at times that I would come home and all I had for dinner was a plate of haricot beans. I remember one Christmas we had bloaters for Christmas dinner. However, nobody is to blame for that. The War was won and that was that.

In 1931 I met my wife. I went to a local hop on a Saturday night. I did not see her during the dance and certainly did not dance with her and was rather keen on some other girl. When I got my coat on, I rushed down the road and thinking it was the girl I had been dancing with, I put my arm through hers – and it was the wrong girl. It was my future wife.

Anyway being gallant, I walked he home. We walked right down Lee High Road, Lewisham High Street through Ladywell Recreation Park, up Randlesdown Road, up Canadian Avenue into Bellingham - quite a long walk. I think I got home a bit late that night. I got rollicked by my mother for being out so late.

Anyway, we met up again and she asked me if I would like to go for a walk in the country, on an all-day Sunday hike. We were not alone. I think we went with two other couples. That started our walking activities. From then on, every summer we used to go hiking every Sunday without exception. It did not cost very much. We would take our own grub, have a few beers here and there and a cup of tea. This was mainly in Kent – around Shoreham, Westerham, around Penshurst, Chiddingston (where naughty wives were tied up and punished) – all those places - lovely countryside.

Then we started going on holidays together. We had holidays in Coombe Martin about three times. We had a holiday in Looe, a holiday in Barmouth, Wales, in Bude, and finally we had our honeymoon in Salcombe, Devon. We got married on the 24th of June, 1939.

The Second World War certainly interrupted our married life. For the first six and a half years of married life, the longest period I spent with my wife was two weeks. We had two weeks honeymoon, two weeks at home and I had Territorial Camp for two weeks, and then two weeks at home before I was called up to serve in the Army. Apart from the odd leave, I did not see much of her.

During that time, our twin daughters were born to us, Judith and Gillian. I did not really know them until they were about four and a half years old. We got to know each other and had some very happy times. We went walking quite a bit. We had some nice holidays. We went to Torquay, Minehead, the Isle of Wight. I think the next time was one near Bognor, on a caravan site – and also at Selsea, where we had the most miserable weather for a whole fortnight. The girls quite enjoyed themselves – they met some local lads and we did not see much of them.

My Daughters and my Grandchildren

Both my daughters eventually got married - and my vivid memories of both those weddings are of when I was taking them to the church in the car – I cried. God know why – I suppose it was having lived with them for so long, it was hard to lose them. I suppose we were quite a close sort of family.

Now I would like to mention our grandchildren. Firstly, Fiona and Kirsteen – the daughters of Gillian. We had a lot to do with bringing them up. We used to have them many weekends and also at New Year’s Eve. When they came to us, we would go for a walk around Beckenham Place Park with the dog. In the evening, we always seemed to play cards. I can always remember this because my wife used to provide us with snacks – and they had those sticky twiglet things. When they shuffled the cards, they got sticky and in the end, you could not shuffle them because they got stuck together.

We used to lark about. They used to like me to play that game where I used to say ‘I’m a little Prairie flower, growing wilder every hour, nobody cares to cultivate me, I’m as wild as can be’. When I said ‘as wild as can be’, the girls used to fly up to the end of the room – and then would come back and say ‘do it again’.

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[I checked the reference – and came up with this:

“SONG HIT OF THE CONVENTION
The following song was the song hit of the 9th International Rotary Convention at Kansas City in 1918.
It was sung by everybody upon every occasion outside the regular business sessions of the Convention – and sung once during a Convention session when Andrew Home-Martin of London, England, referred to it.
The last line is repeated while the singer places the tip of his index finger on the crown of his head – and whirls around once in time with the rhythm”.

THE ROTARIAN, August 1918, Vol XIII, No 2]
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Eric continues:

And I can always remember Kirsteen on one New Year’s Eve when she was about four years old – she wanted to stay up and see the New Year in. About 11 o’clock, her eyelids began to fall and we had to keep prodding her to keep her awake. Eventually, she did ‘see’ the New Year in – but did not know much about it!

Then there is Judith’s son Brett, who we saw a lot of when we visited Canada. We often went out with him alone. He seemed to enjoy himself with us. We lost him in Square One Shopping mall and could not find him anywhere – but he eventually turned up. Over in Canada, we were apt to get on the wrong bus to go home. One day Brett said ‘We are on the wrong bus but I know where to get off’ – and when we got off, he said ‘It’s only a short mile back to my house’. This turned out to be about two miles.

Brett always knew what he wanted. He was very fond of the toys you assemble yourself and he used to get round us until we bought the damn thing. It gave him much pleasure putting them together and he used to do it exceptionally well.

Happy Days!

Another recollection I have is of our Christmas parties. We had some hilarious parties. We all seemed to let our hair down and have a good time. I was introduced to all the dances – the jive, the twist and the locomotion. Everybody had to do a ‘turn’. We had An and Lionel do a ‘turn’, the Watts came over and did their ‘turn’, It was real um-dinger times.

Another recollection I have is when Judy came home from an Aquascutum Christmas Party. I think she had so much champagne that when she left, she had no ruddy idea where she was. She came home and thought it must have been past midnight and that we were all in bed, so she locked the doors. In fact, we were out and when we came home we could not get in – so we got the garden prop and hammered it against the window to try to wake her up but it made no difference. We got the dog barking and eventually we had to break a window to get in. Happy days!

My wife and I have been married 56 years. It has been quite a pleasant sort of marriage – we have been very compatible. We have a few arguments but nothing very serious – and it soon blows over. I think at the moment, we are very dependent on one another.

My Dogs

Now I must talk about the dogs in my life .....

..... extensive section follows on ‘Jimp’, ‘Jacko’ and ‘Sandy’ – still avoiding saying anything very personal or anything specific about his own quite considerable achievements in life – this was a stoic and unassuming generation. Finally .....

My Days in the Army

Now I must talk about my days in the Army. I was called up two weeks before the war started and I think it was 1942 when the Army was expanded – they needed more officers. So a bunch of us were sent along for an interview and strangely enough I passed and went on to Shrivenham to a training camp. Most of the time in England, I was on active defense and we guarded things like oil installations, ball bearing factories – but mainly air fields – although I did have a good period on the defense of Liverpool docks, which was a most interesting time.

From there, I was posted to a unit going overseas to make up the numbers. They were ex-regular army units called the Royal Ulster Rifles and, with them, I saw active service in Algeria, Tunisia, Malta, Sicily and both sides of Italy from south to north. Somehow, my face seemed to fit there and I got on very well indeed. Eventually, I got promoted to the rank of Captain.

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THE OFFICIAL STORY:

The 2nd Battalion, London Irish Rifles (Royal Ulster Rifles) was created in April 1939 and brought rapidly to strength. After training and spending some times in coastal defence in England, the battalion was assigned in June 1942 to the 38th (Irish) Infantry Brigade, alongside the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers (the "Faughs") and the 6th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (The "Skins", later replaced by the 2nd R Innis Fus). The Brigade landed in North Africa in late 1942 with the 6th Armoured Division, and in March 1943, during the campaign in Tunisia, was transferred to the 78th (Battleaxe) Infantry Division.

Under the prestigious command of the Eighth Army, the 2 LIR were to fight in Sicily, and after crossing to mainland Italy in late September 1943, the battle of Termoli, against the Barbara Line on the River Trigno, the crossing of the River Sangro (Gustav Line) and the battle of Monte Cassino in spring 1944. After a brief spell of rest in Egypt, the Division took again its place on the line of battle, fighting in the Po Valley and the Argenta Gap. The end of the war found the London Irish entering in Austria.
(Source : The London Irish at War : A History of the Battalions of the London Irish Rifles in World War II, by S. T. A. R, London 1949).

The illustration depicts a Bren gunner of the 2 LIR in the Autumn-Winter 1944, when the battalion was fighting for small hills in the Po Valley, between Florence and Bologna in Northern Italy - under the "most depressing weather", as the historian of the London Irish noted – so much for "Sunny Italy".

He wears the standard dress of the British Tommy, with a wool-lined leather jerkin, woollen scarf and gloves for added warmth. His insignia are the "battleaxe" of the 78th Inf Div and, under the rifle-green arm-of-service stripe, the green shamrock of the 38th Irish Brigade. The black triangle on the shamrock is the battalion indicator.
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Eric continues:

I have failed to mention my walking days. When I was a young lad at the Stock Exchange, they had an annual London to Brighton Walk. One year, when I was about 21, I got on my bike and cycled to Purley to watch the walkers go through. I thought – if only I could walk from London to Brighton, I would have achieved something in my life. So, the following year, I did a bit of training and had a go. I finished in about 10 hours 24 minutes.

The second year took about 9 hours 20 minutes. The third year I was getting near the nine hours mark. In the fourth and fifth years I broke nine hours for which I got a medal. I finished second in 1936, 1937 and 1938 – and eventually won it in 1939.

Then the War came and, after the War, they were very keen to get the event started again. I was not particularly interested but I thought that I had better play the game and have a go. I won the next two years in 1947 and 1948. So I won it three times in succession and came in second three times in succession

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Background: London to Brighton Walk

Origins of the Great Race

Early in 1903 William Bramson, a member of the London Stock Exchange, had the idea that the Exchange should join the current craze of pedestrianism, and that members of the House and their clerks be persuaded to attempt to walk from Westminster Bridge to the sea front at Brighton, a distance of 53 miles, in a time of 12 hours and 30 minutes.

Bramson consulted with a few friends in the Market and subsequently a committee was formed and the organisation of the race was put in motion. Some 100 years later members and clerks of the Stock Exchange are still attempting to do the same.

The idea of such an event caught the imagination of the House and soon they had 100 entries. It was decided no charge would be made for entries and that the first man to complete the course would receive a gold medal, value 10 guineas, with second and third medals to the value of 5 guineas each. It was also agreed that there would be a sealed handicap race with a silver cup to the value of 10 guineas to the winner, with prizes to second and third, and that Bramson would be responsible for the handicapping.

Because of the amount of organisation required, it was agreed that the race should be held on the 1st May, that being a Stock Exchange holiday. Entrants started training, some even employed professional trainers, and members were sighted striding through the country roads most weekends.

Near the date several sweep stakes were organised in the House, the largest being in the Kaffir market with a first prize of £350. By the eve of the race bets of several thousands of pounds were made and it was reported some market pitches resembled miniature Tattersalls.

On the day of the race the weather was wet and windy. The race had had much publicity and it was reported that 30,000 spectators were in the Westminster Bridge area. Because of the crush, the competitors failed to reach the start line at the official time and the race started with the bulk of the competitors three minutes late. A large number of mounted and foot police were required to clear a passage through the human mass to allow the 87 official competitors to proceed the first few miles.

Prominent companies were present on the road advertising their wares. Among the most popular of these were the OXO cars, who handed competitors refreshments which included OXO, hot or cold, OXO and champagne, OXO and soda, cheese, biscuits, bananas and apples.

The winner of this first race was E F Broad, a clerk with the broking firm of Marsden & Co, who completed the course in nine hours 30 minutes 1 second, and the winner of the sealed handicap was S E Knight in 10 hours 8 minutes 30 seconds. Of the 87 starters, 77 completed the course in the allotted time. In 1910 the Stock Exchange Athletic Club was formed and has been responsible for the organisation of the races since, although the second race was not until 1912.

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