Elsie & Howard c 1915

My parents were married in June 1940 with an emergency military license as my father’s unit (2nd KSLI) were being sent overseas. Nothing remarkable about that, but what IS remarkable is that he sent my mother a postcard saying “Wedding today or not at all” (my brother still has it). So on the morning of the 10th June 1940, he sent a postcard from Shrewsbury where he was stationed, to my mother’s home in Ross-on-Wye, confident that she would receive it in time to get a taxi from her home to Ross station, get a train from Ross to Shrewsbury, then get a taxi from Shrewsbury station to Shrewsbury Barracks in time to be married that afternoon in the barracks Chapel.

Imagine trying to do that today!

After the ceremony, my father went back to his unit and my mother went back to her parents house in Ross-on-Wye. They didn’t see each other again for over a year. Oh..and my father’s overseas posting was cancelled - instead his unit was posted to London to help with fire-fighting and anti-aircraft duties!