What was your dad like when you were a child?

My Dad was always known as Pop. As a small child I have few memories of him. We lived in Corsham, a small village in Wiltshire and he was a soldier in what was then know as the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. This branch of the Army had responsibility for munitions,. that is all the bombs, artillery shells and small arms ammunition.

The trains delivered the supplies from the manufacturers (usually at night) and then were unloaded at an underground station under Box Hill. The munitions were then stored in vast underground caverns that date from Roman times and are still in use today. My father was an officer and as such was on duty for eight hours pretty well every day. As a result I saw very little of him.

After the war ended we returned to Wolverhampton where Pop rejoined the family business. This was a tailoring shop that made clothes for their customers both for men and for women. At the peak of the business the shop employed about fifty to sixty people, mostly in the workrooms behind the shop. As was the case with many family businesses many of the family had the same name, in our case Burslem, so to avoid confusion they were called by their given name.

My Dad was Mr. Geoff and my Mum who also worked there was Mrs Geoff. I was Mr. James, my brother Mr.

Phil, my uncle Mr.Norman and my great-uncle Mr. Ernest. Being a shop it was open all day Saturday and Thursday was early closing day but that day I was at school. That left Sunday when our paths would cross for any length of time.

I don't think it made for a great deal of bonding between us for much of my childhood years. It was only very much later in life after my Mother died that I feel I got to know Pop well and we then grew very close.