Roy Garner-
My playground was in the heart of Cockney London near the Royal Victoria Docks and
I naturally gravitated towards supporting the Hammers -
Towards the end of the war returned to live with my parents, now living in Kent, our original home having been bombed to an uninhabitable state.
My first job involved allocating berths on ships going to the Mediterranean area for authorised personnel. Call up saw me become one of a small team recruiting and training tank crews in the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards in Germany.
On return to Civy Street I took a job with the local council and married a childhood friend. A job in Oxford that came with a house in Rippington Drive attached was too good an opportunity to miss and I eventually became executive in charge of income for the Vale of the White Horse District Council.
A few years later a friend dragged me into dinghy sailing and we gained permission to sail on Dorchester Lake and formed the Dorchester Sailing Club. My wife and I have spent many happy holidays crewing our boat as far a field as the Bay of Biscay.
In 1960 I was appointed Clerk to the Parish Council and Clerk to the Old Marston Charities Trust, whilst my wife served as organist at St. Nicholas Church until 1991. We ran Isis Travel in Cherwell Drive for ten years, and in theory we have retired so many times we should be sitting on our hands but life never seems to be like that.