So I joined the Army, did my training and was posted to Egypt in late December 1952.  I think that would be where Peter Ward and I first met.  I was with 3 Infantry Workshop which was based near the Bitter Lakes in Egypt.  We were there only a few weeks and not allowed out of camp except in groups, as there was some trouble with local people who did not like it that Britain controlled the Suez Canal - it was to become a major incident just three years later, when the Army recalled people on the Reserve List.

In January of 1953, half of the Workshop was moved to Kenya to become 7th Infantry Workshop, to service the vehicles of the Infantry Units that were trying to control the Mau Mau locals who were fighting for independence.  Most of us were flown from Egypt to Nairobi, but some (including Peter) went on ahead by ship with the Workshop vehicles and equipment needed to start up a new Workshop.  So we met again up country near a place called Nanyuki, where all the tents had been set up, which was to become our new home.  We were allocated two to a tent and Peter was paired with me, and we gradually got to know each other.

We worked together as electricians on the vehicles as they came in for repair.  Peter had trained at ICI as an electrician, but on AC electrics and not so much, if any, DC, whereas I didn't know a thing about AC and only the training of DC vehicle electrics I was given on the Army Course.  We muddled through, of course, until after about six months I left the 7th and went on loan to the Buffs Infantry Regiment, some miles away, who needed an electrician to join their own small batch of REME people, who were mainly mechanics or armourers - it meant they didn't have to send vehicles all the way to Workshops for minor electrical work.

After getting to know the other REME lads, I found out that I had missed, by only a few days, a lad called Norman Bedale who was in the football team of the Buffs and had been with me at the Homes.  He had trained as a Printer and he had family in Edmonton, not so far from where I had been working. 

The Buffs were going back to England, as they had finished their stint, and I wondered whether I may be going with them but, no, I rejoined Workshops and slept again with Peter in our two-man tent.  Soon after that, Peter asked Margaret, his sister, to write to me.  After some hesitation, she agreed.  At first, it was about one letter a month, then one a week until it was almost every day that my name was called when the post came.

Peter soon went back for demob and I was loaned out again, as Brigade HQ needed an electrician.  It was there that John Dearman joined me as my replacement at HQ and we became firm friends.  John was one of those called up again when the Suez Canal trouble started again.  I was due for demob in March of 1955 and I did consider signing on and staying in the Army but, the day before I was to fly back, my documents went missing and I couldn't fly until I had all my jabs again.  I thought, if that is Army organisation, I'm better off out!