Arthur Waterhouse Territorial
Arthur Waterhouse was born in Wintle Cottages in Madan Road in 1915, the year of the first Zeppelin air-raid on London “…In 1939 I received my call-up papers on top of a bus – he laughs at this – I was going home one afternoon to see my mum when I heard a motorbike coming along the road. The rider stopped the bus just outside the Bull Inn at Brasted and I heard him say ‘you’ve got a chap named Waterhouse on this bus, give him these papers’. I knew the conductor and he came running up the stairs and said ‘ere you are mate, it’s your ticket’.
I opened it up and there was a thin bit of paper that said ‘report to your nearest depot with all your kit and one blanket’. He said ‘where have you got to go?’ so I told him I had to report to the Drill Hall in Westerham. He said ‘oh dear, well if you’ve been called-up, you’d better go and tell them at work’. I had to go back to the White Hart where I was working, and I couldn’t find the manager, but the manageress came out of the lounge so I said ‘I’m sorry Mrs Preston, but I’ve been called-up, I’ve got to go right away’. The manageress just stood there and said ‘Oh dear, and we’ve got a dinner-party on tonight too’ – I just thought ‘I’ve got serious things to do, that’s your hard luck’.
No Comments
Add a comment about this page