AN EVENTFUL TRIP HOME -
GOODGE STREET REMEMBERED
As Remembered By Arthur Hamlin
I spent the best part of three years away from home, first in Sabratha, Libya and then Suez.
I had a very eventful trip home; I hitched a lift from TEK to Port Said, then on a scrap metal ship, the Humphrey Gale, onto Bengazi, then back to my regiment in Sabratha. I packed up my kit, got on a plane out of Tripoli to Malta – two weeks later another plane this time only as far as Nice as there was a problem with the plane – three days in Nice then back to London where six of us were put in the back of a 15 cwt and taken into town.
The driver stopped at the side of the road and told us to get out. All our kit was put on the pavement and the driver told us to go down there, and pointed to some steps. It was about 200 feet below London, quite a climb down with all our belongings. It was dark when we got there and we had not eaten since we left France. We were offered some tea from an urn that was probably made before we left France, so we declined. An officer said there was no food available as it was now early evening but, he told us that there were cafes around in the road above. We told him that we had no money and he made a phone call and cash was brought from a barracks somewhere in town. We signed for the money and then climbed the 200 feet back up to the road and had a meal. After dinner we descended the steps yet again to what was to become our home for the next two nights – a concrete floor to sleep on with a kitbag for a pillow – we knew how to live in those days! It was about 2 weeks before Christmas 1954 and it felt freezing cold to us after being in the hot sun for so long. Where we actually slept was on the platform of Goodge Street Underground Station – apparently unsafe because of bombing during the war, but safe enough for troops of course!!