1918-39
James & Amelia’s children
Previous | Contents | Next James (Sonny) After Angus was demobilised he went to work for Sonny, and to begin with business was good. “Heather was just born and things were going well,” Angus writes, “when for some reason Sonny decided to sell up and buy another place in the Balham markets”. This was much closer to the…
Angus
Previous | Contents | Next Wartime service Angus’s first job was in a drawing office with a heating and ventilation engineer in Kingsway, London, but after some eighteen months he decided to join the Royal Air Force. “This was accomplished by buying six months extra National Health Stamps to falsely increase my age, and after a medical…
James T. Sharpe, commercial artist
Previous | Contents | Next Well, I hate to nit-pick, but if I could I’d ask Uncle Angus about his timeline — because as far as I can see James was well set up in London, and married to a Londoner, well before the war. § § Those were my first impressions of Heather’s grandfather. As Douglas said,…
The young terrors and their lair
Previous | Contents | Next After that peculiar yet vivid memory of meeting his grandfather in the “wee Turkish hat” as a three year old, Angus’s next memory was when he was six — “making scooters and riding the South London roads with brother Douglas and friends”. His brother James (“Sonny” from now on) gave…
11. The lathe in the kitchen
Previous | Contents | Unfortunately I was a young boy, and had to stand on a low box to operate cross-slides etc. However, standing on the box largely prevented me from reaching the treadle, so I had to fasten a big wooden block to the treadle in order to keep the thing going. In this way I contrived…
10. Brothers and sisters
Previous | Contents | Next I never forgot that particular demonstration and much later in life, when I had acquired a bit of woodworking skill, I tried (just as a personal test) the same joint on a drawer, All I can say is — I was very glad that my mitred dovetails were of the hidden variety! Sonny produced…
9. Holidays
Previous | Contents | Next The holiday for me started with trunk packing. I’m quite sure it never struck my mother in the same way, what with all the washing, ironing and, probably, mending clothes — yours truly meanwhile being a thorough nuisance and getting in the way at every turn. Came eventually the journey across London to Euston…
8. Reading and chemistry
Previous | Contents | Next We had books on just about every conceivable subject in addition to a considerable amount of fiction. Every week my father kept us supplied with a good cross-section of magazines and publications — he needed to be kept up to date for his commercial art and we needed to read for entertainment and education.…
7. Toys and mishaps
Previous | Contents | Next I have mentioned elsewhere about the workshop and all the engines and tools with which it was equipped, but I also recall a tremendous quantity of model railway material – there was enough track to go twice round the garden path together with lots of points and sidings. Two very nice Hornby 4 –…