Three Young Men Meet in 1943 while on Leave

Three Young Men Meet in 1943 while on Leave

Three friends meet during the war then Reg relates what happened to them after the war. One dies in mysterious circumstances after a successful musical career. One, formerly a black marketeer work for the BBC. He takes Reg to a recording that he is involved in. Later, when Reg and his wife moves to Australia, he visits them. Later they lose touch.

2016-04-07

Three printed sheets

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THREE YOUNG MEN MEET IN 1943 WHILE ON LEAVE
There was Peter in the Royal Navy, dressed in the Bell Bottom uniform known far
and wide throughout the world of ships, no longer was the ship name on a ribbon
around his hat, just Submarines.
Reg in the Royal Air Force dressed in grey blue battle dress, a single wing badge on
his left breast with E in its centre, and sergeant stripes on his sleeves.
And Jack, 6 feet 2 inches, towered over his friends, dressed as a Commando, red
beret at an angle, the badges declared he was in the Parachute Regiment,
everything polished and glowed, a perfect picture of a soldier in a fighting army.
The friends were all on leave from their units and were catching up on what had
happened to each other since leaving the same school.
Reg and Peter said little about what they had done and seen, just stated that they
could not do what the other was doing, one under the sea the other up in the clouds.
Jack still under training, and hoped to see some action soon, all three pleased to see
old friends alive and doing ok.
We move forward to 1947, the three are back home and out of uniform, Peter is now
employed as a compositor on a local newspaper, where I found out "upper and lower
case" originated, plays a double base in a band in the evenings, hopes to one day
give up his job and form his own band, Reg still an engineer but working for a
construction company, employed to service and repair machinery used on buildings.
Jack lives in London, has no real job, lives in Soho over a place of ill repute, makes
lollies from anything he can get on the black market, to sell on the streets, works part
time for a well known dance band as humper of baggage when it is touring England.
Forward yet again many years, Peter has formed his band toured the USA, married
with children, and doing well in the entertainment industry, opened a club for young
people in a seaside holiday town in south England, the local Drug lords tried to get
him to sell drugs, refused and ended up being found dead under a collapsed part of
his club, local police found no cause to investigate.
Jack has a good job with the BBC, invites Reg and his wife to come up to London
and see an episode of "Are you being served" being recorded. A very welcome invite
for Reg and his wife Phyllis who drive to London, park in the BBC car park where
Jack had organised a space, and a greeting at headquarters, a meal in the massive
restaurant, surrounded by stars of both TV and Film, many of whom, greeted Jack
as we found a reserved table. Jack was a well known figure in the BBC, and seemed
to be the head of a department that controlled certain aspects of TV shows.
Time to walk to the theatre said Jack, only a few streets away from headquarters, as
we arrived at the road leading to the theatre found a long queue of people waiting to
see the filming, we walked along beside them and entered the "stage door" Jack
taking the lead to greet and be greeted by actors and stage hands as we moved onto


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the stage itself, Jack of course wearing the latest in fashion. Phyllis wearing a long
wool coat and pretty hat, Reg wearing an Australian hat and lambs wool jacket with
lots of wool showing. As Jack pointed out where the cameras and directors would be
situated, the gallery above was filling with the excited crowd, our little group being
pointed at and assumed by them to be people of importance.
We now moved to our place in the gallery, Jack refused the one reserved and we
were quickly found the best spot, he'd selected, Jack sitting between us to keep us
well informed of what was about to happen. This episode of "Are you being served"
was a winter one, in line with the weather at the moment, and as the actors rushed
from the lift, clouds of fake snow pour out with them, many takes were needed as
lines were forgotten , Jack said on purpose by a certain actor who wanted the
audience to remember him, and the poor stage hands dragged out large vacuum
cleaners to clean up the mess, but Phyllis and I enjoyed the show and had a better
understanding of what went in to a popular series on TV.I remarked to Jack that all
the furniture used was so much smaller than they looked on the TV , Jack explained
that it was all to do with camera angles, and movements on stage, full size would
look massive.
It is now about 1995, Reg and Phyllis with their children moved to Australia in 1964/5
have retired, and are living at Eimeo a suburb of Mackay in Queensland, Reg bought
a computer, much to the amusement of his family who stated he would never work
out how to use it, well no longer at Eimeo but at 92 is still using it or its many
replacements in 2016.
Jack also has retired has houses in London and in the USA, sends an email to ask? ,
can he come and visit us in Australia? Phyllis is over joyed Jack is one of her
brothers and last seen many years ago, so back went a certain yes please and Jack
duly arrived. still tall, still filled any room with his presence, but showing signs of the
passing of years and a diet which we were told included lots of whisky.
Phyllis had organised a couple of weeks for just Jack and herself at Hamilton Island,
where they could catch up on all that had happened over the years, Sheila, Jack and
Phyllis the last three of a very large family, Sheila had moved to American soon after
the end of WW2 . Phyllis and Jack enjoyed a wonderful few days together, and
returned to Eimeo for some more time together before Jack had to return to England.
We spent many hours reliving days long gone, I had always wondered what Jack
had done during D Day, what position he had held at the BBC and just how he had
got such an important job, so came yet another page of history, told with ease by a
con man who never really harmed anyone.
One of the band jobs was with Joe Loss Jack said , which toured many towns in
Britain, and often played at country mansions for a private dance and party, some
where Jack picked up blank printed letter headed paper of a Lord "some body", back
in Soho Jack wrote in flowing language a wonderful personal recommendation from
this Lord to the BBC about himself, which got him an interview with BBC TV, his
story of WW2 heroics and service in the Commandos and its Parachute Regiment, a
certain job, which turned out to be head of a department responsible for sourcing the
furniture etc for every series of shows being produced and filmed by the BBC, as for

D Day, leaping out of a perfectly good aeroplane on a parachute was not his idea of
fun , so had put off contact with the enemy but did arrive later on in Berlin to ensure
order was being kept.
After some prompting went on to explain what his job at the BBC entailed, and
likened it to making a cake from a recipe.
Jack received a rough plan of a new series, giving types of furniture where it should
fit in and general details of the script, all new series were recorded and made in one
of the theatres owned by the BBC, so as one series of about ten episodes finished
and cleared of its settings, the sets for the next series would be assembled, Jack, the
writers, directors and producers would meet on site and finalise the sets, the actors
chosen for the series would also meet and do a run through to ensure everything
worked, changes where required would be noted by Jack or one of his staff and
replacement furniture installed,
Each episode may require some special items or clothes for an actor, Jack and his
staff made sure these were available when required, as each series was completed
in the same theatre, being filmed one day each week with a live audience, the actors
could get employment on the other 6 days, with this type of show learning lines was
no great strain , and more than one episode was often filmed during a week.
I have not seen Jack since his visit to us in Eimeo, cards at Christmas each way kept
the link, but recent years do not bring any answers to our" how are you" cards or
emails. We have heard that Jack and his wife Pat moved out of London a few years
ago, both not in the best of health, time I phoned again,
All the people and events in this short tale are real, Jack is not his real name, all
others are.
Remembered and typed with the one finger not crippled with arthritis,
On 7.04.2016 by Reg Miles Maryborough Queensland Australia