CD2

(71 mins)
 

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WATCHET AND WILLITON SCHOOLS / TAUNTON SCHOOL / WATCHET PRIVATE SCHOOL / PLAYGROUND LANGUAGE

GC went to a little school at Watchet until he was about 10, then to another school in Williton, for about 4 years until he was about 14, then he went to Taunton School for another 4 years, then he had a year at university. He went in the army. He came back when he was 23-4. Then went on to university again.

There were quite a few other children following that sort of pattern. There were 3 or 4 compartments of children on the train going to school. 5 or 6 went to Taunton School. Another 7 or 8 went to Huishes, the grammar school. They were all day boys. There were couple of boys coming from Minehead to Taunton. He believes that at that time, if you won a scholarship you had a choice of going either to Taunton School the public school, or to Minehead secondary school. You could go to the secondary school by paying as well. GC's father asked him which one he wanted to go to. His cousin had been to Taunton School. GC thought he was quite a good chap, so he thought he would go to Taunton School.

Although it was a public school, the fees were very moderate. He was grateful to his dad because in the wartime he worked long hours doing repairs and he needn't have done, in order to pay for his education. He's very grateful. There were 2 boys from Minehead and another 3 or 4 from Williton, and I or 2 from further up the line. He discovered afterwards that he wouldn't have been allowed to try for a scholarship. Taunton School had scholarships but he wouldn't have been allowed to try for a scholarship because he had been to a private school before. You could only try for a scholarship if you had been to a state school. Watchet was a private school.

It was very small only about 6 pupils. There was one teacher there and she gave him a good start. He still remembers the pictures on the walls. One of the pictures was elephants in a Burmese jungle. He never thought that he would be there himself.

He started French a bit earlier by going to the private school at Watchet. There was no French taught at all in elementary school. It wouldn't have made any difference in the long run. He supposes it compared quite favourably. From 10 onwards it did compare quite favourably. He could have had more scientific background, but they had general science. It seemed to suit him. He thinks it had more of a slant towards poetry and literature. He wouldn't have learnt Latin in the state school.

At the time it divided him from the people who weren't having private education, but the strange thing is that now it doesn't seem to. They seem very happy with one another, that is the few who are left. They meet in the Legion over at Washford. It doesn't seem to matter now. At the time it didn't matter too much. He played with the village boys. If they hadn't got bad language of course! He thinks they were vetted on that ground. They [his parents] didn't realise that the language he heard in the playground was the same as he heard at public school. [Back to top]
 

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FATHER / MOTHER

GC thinks that his father didn't realise what an exceptional man he was. He used to say that he wished he had a good memory. He was proud of GC's memory. He had a good memory and he had such skills. He built his own house, doing all his carpentry indoors. He made a staircase, a terribly difficult thing to do. He made chairs, whatever he wanted to make. He made a garden for his mother. He even made the moulds for the garden ornaments, which they still have.

He was chairman of the District Council Committee, and parish councillor for goodness knows how many years. He was always top of the poll. He was a local preacher for 57 years. That was following in his father's footsteps. He sang in quartets.

He [his father] didn't quite realise how much he was worth. He knew that his elder brother had been a great success in his career. His brother was chairman of the Plymouth and Exeter District for the Methodist Church for a year. He was chairman of the Southampton District. He had written and had published poetry. He had written histories. He had been a very much loved and appreciated minister. Almost the first circuit he was in he served in the Isles of Scilly. The people there were still sending him flowers 50 years later, because they remembered him. This was Lewis Court. His father was more humble than he ought to have been. He didn't value himself enough as a person, nothing to do with finances. Financially he had enough to live on. In the 1940s he said that if the business brought in £5 a week you could live on that.

His mother was very sweet tempered and strong at the same time. GC's cousin said of her, who had lost her mother quite young, that when she came to stay with her, that she could always tell her all her troubles and that she would always put her right. She said that she was such a lady. All her sisters were ladies.

She was still running the post office on the day before she died, when she was 81. She didn't want to give up. She enjoyed her work. She said that it was her social life because she met people in the office. She had a very elderly assistant who came who was very dependable towards her last year. She was still coming down to take in the mail, by that time it had gone to 6:30 in the morning, until the day before she died. Then the postman one morning just couldn't make her hear. Actually he broke in and she had fallen down.

Apart from that she was still working and happy in the work there up to 81. His father had died 10 years earlier. She said that she hoped he would go first because he couldn't have done without her. She wasn't involved in a lot of things outside her work because somebody had to be there all the time. His father was her life really. She had excellent health most of her life. [Back to top]
 

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WARTIME EVENINGS / HOMEWORK / TAUNTON SCHOOL / WASHFORD TRADES / INTEREST IN HISTORY, MUSIC AND LANGUAGES

GC remembers the wartime evenings. Before that in the summer, he would have been out playing cricket or games or just messing around on bikes largely, meeting friends. In the winter he found that his homework took up the evenings, pretty much. Sometimes he would find that his Latin prep took 3 hours or more. Sometimes the homework was a bind. His parents would just sit there reading quietly while he was doing his homework on the table. They never interfered. They never said it was time that he went to bed or anything. He knew that if he got his Latin wrong he would be punished. That was the old kind of education!

He doesn't think it was more strict than any other school. He resented that you went to school on a Saturday. One Saturday morning he hadn't been able to do his translation. He couldn't make it clear and so he was put in detention on Saturday afternoon, 3:30 to 5:30. There was no way of letting his parents know that he was in detention. So of course they were worried when he didn't get home at 5:30. That was the old way of it. He thinks that was the only time he was punished.

They got the cane. He doesn't think it happened as often as is made out. You were caned largely for cribbing or copying work. One chap copied him once and they were both called up. GC wasn't caned, the other chap was. He wasn't caned for anything. GC thinks it was very wrong that they allowed prefects to cane. They shouldn't have allowed boys to cane other boys. The only time he was caned was by them. They said that they would just have a go at him. The perfects thought it was time he had a caning, and he thought it was wrong.

There was a lot of work being done in Washford. Hardly any of those trades still go on. Some people are still making their living [that way]. He feels that in the last 10 or 15 years there has been a bit of a resurgence of small scale industry. One of the happiest times on the county council was being chairman of the small industries committee, getting these things started.

He was largely interested in history at school. Later on he specialised in French, for the very inadequate reason that he did best in that at A level school certificate. He ought to have done something else. He was interested in many things at school. Three things topped the list, music, history, and languages. [Back to top]
 

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SELF-TAUGHT LANGUAGES / EXETER UNIVERSITY / ENLISTING / RETURN TO UNIVERSITY /MEETING WIFE / POST-GRADUATE RESEARCH / FAMILY QUALIFICATIONS

When he was 14 he discovered what interest there was in languages. So far he had only learned French. It must have been 1939 when he thought he would learn German. He taught himself up to School Certificate level. That was interesting so he thought he would try some thing else. He was able to carry on German when he went to university. He worked up enough Italian to be happy with it. It was rather fun, so he had a go at Dutch.

It was about 1942 before he was called up and he was down at Watchet one afternoon. There was a Dutch ship in the harbour. The captain was standing on the bridge, so he summoned up a greeting and asked to board [says it in Dutch]. The captain looked a bit surprised but he went aboard the ship and he talked to one or two of the ship's crew for a little while, then came off. He thought they were very trusting to let an English boy come on their ship in the middle of the war.

He learnt languages from teach yourself books. He had always had a love affair with Norway from the time he was about 7. He loved the whole idea of it. So he tried Norwegian. He worked on Norwegian for quite a time. It wasn't until 6 years later that he actually got there, because it's an expensive place to get to. So they also went there for his 70th birthday, for a special treat.

His father had left school at 12. His mother had stayed until 15 which was exceptional. He was very fortunate, his parents were quite happy for him to stay on to do Higher School Certificate, with 2 years in the sixth form. Then he was expected to be called up any way, so he tried for a third year in the sixth form to try to get a scholarship to university. They were happy for him to go and do it.

It was more usual to go on to university from Taunton School than from the secondary school. It seemed the natural thing to go on to if you were capable of it. He went to Exeter, the College of the South West in those days, for one year. Even in the middle of the war the government allowed you to do it. If you were a scientist you weren't called up. If you were an Arts student they would allow you to do one year at university before calling you up. In spite of a desperate struggle, it was some thing. It was quite remarkable. He doesn't think that many countries would have allowed them to go on.

The one year was allowed on condition that you did military training. So he did that and enlisted as a territorial in the Queen's Royal Regiment. They had military training every Wednesday morning and every Sunday afternoon. It wasn't just lying back and doing nothing. He had three and half years in the army. 

He came back to university in 1948. Then he met his wife the following year. He took his degree in 1950. She had taken hers 2 years before because he had missed 4 years out. He read French and German. He did 2 years post graduate research for a PhD. One year was in Exeter which was pleasant, the first year of marriage, so he didn't get much research done. He got an upper second. They said they thought he would have done better. He would have done if he had done more work! It was just as well in one way because all the family are upper seconds! Except his second daughter. She got BA in England then she got a BA at the university of New York. She got a summa cum laude. There were only 7 in the whole year got that. So they were very proud of her. [Back to top]
 

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BRAIN OF BRITAIN / SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEST / EARLY MARRIED YEARS / TEACHING / SHEBBEAR COLLEGE / FAMILY

GC was Brain of Britain in 1973. Clare, his wife, had been listening to the programme and thought that he could answer some of these questions so she put him in for it. He was reluctant but she persuaded him. To his surprise he went through however many rounds there were and at the end there was the question. The winning question was, 'where does the colour gamboge get it's name?'

It just so happened the year before he'd thought he would have a go at learning Portuguese. He'd had a go at Spanish. He'd stayed off Portuguese simply because of a remark made by George Borrow who travelled in Spain in the 1840s and wrote of the whining sound of Portuguese [quotes extract]. Then GC tried it and felt sheer delight. He loved every second of it. He had been reading the travels of the 16^th century navigators to the east . There was a map in the book that showed that the navigator had landed in the country of 'Cambodge' [Cambodia]! So he could answer that and it became the winning question.

There was a prize. It was not quite like the prize for '15 to 1' or 'Mastermind'. It was £25 worth of book tokens and a dictionary! Something came of that one because immediately after, he thinks it was the Daily Express, rang up and asked him what he thought of it. He said he didn't think that the prize erred on the generous side, so the headline read that the 'Brain of Britain slams BBC for prize'.

He wrote to the BCC and asked about any follow up because he enjoyed the programme so much. They replied no and that they found that most contestants were quite content to have taken part. Then a year later there came a letter through from South Africa. It said that his name had been recommended to them by the BBC for taking part in a contest in South Africa.

At that time they were a bit doubtful about taking part in anything in South Africa. A girlfriend from his boyhood lived there whom they thought they would rather like to see. So they thought they would have a go. They said they would give them a 1st class flight and hotel for 3 weeks. [ Tells the story of negotiating to take his wife as well.] He was there nearly 3 weeks there and did 13 programmes. He won 11 of the programmes. It was unfamiliar and he wasn't familiar with the format so he was very pleased to have won [that many] What's more he came back with rather more in the pocket than he went out with.

They were living in Washford then. He'd left home when he was 18 to find work and go to college. They married 1950 and they taught [?check] for 2 years in France. They started their family in 1953 and had 4 children. They were up in Yorkshire for 4 years. Over in France trying to get a job in England, no school wanted to pay the travelling expenses to come home so eventually they came back to England and stayed with his mother at Washford. His father had died only 3 or 4 months before. So they were company for his mother.

He got a job in Yorkshire for 4 years teaching German and French. Then back to Devon, moving up into North Devon for 4 years at Shebbear College. They saw the advertisement and he wasn't happy at all with the job in South Devon. It was a name he had always been familiar with because it was school that had been founded in the 1820s by the early Bible Christians in North Devon so that their sons and eventually their daughters should have a proper education, otherwise as farming families [they wouldn't]. So they went and had 4 years there and were very happy. It was the ideal place for bringing up small children. It was 10 miles from any town. There were fields all around. There was a cottage rented by the school for a £1 a week.

His children are Alison, the eldest, now married with a lovely little boy. There's Mark, he has been married [refers to situation now]. Then they have a daughter Joy in America. It's her second marriage. Her husband is American and they are very fond of him. He's a devoted anglophile. They are coming for the New Year. Their eldest child is Phillipa. She has 3 boys and lives in Newbury. She's a librarian. [Back to top]
 

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ILFRACOMBE GRAMMAR SCHOOL / TAUNTON SCHOOL / POLITICAL AMBITIONS / COUNTY COUNCIL / CLARE'S TEACHING / MINEHEAD SCHOOL / EARLY RETIREMENT / WRITING / RETURN TO LIBERAL RUN COUNTY COUNCIL

GC was at Shebbear from 1959-1963. They felt they had to move for the children who needed older schooling. There wasn't anywhere there. He felt he couldn't move anywhere outside of the west of England, because his mother was getting older. They had to be in reach of her. He tried various places and eventually, they just did a sideways move, no good for promotion, to Ilfracombe Grammar School. It was a lovely little Grammar School, just 300, just the size a school should be. It was lovely there, besides he was getting very involved in politics then.

He wanted to move where there was another Liberal strength. They were there for about 5 years. Then his mother died so they tried moving back to Somerset and try to carry on the family business and post office. It just didn't work. The days of village stores and post offices were over. [aside to his wife who has come in to draw curtains, to effect that recording is nearly finished and he has to collect a car battery. She joins in conversation briefly.] Eventually they moved to Taunton. then he was at Taunton School for about 6 years. Then they decided that he was getting on and he had to make a name somehow, so they tried for parliament. [refers to wife] They tried for two or three times for parliament. After a number of years they moved to Roadwater. He went on the County Council for 12 years. That was when they began to feel they had got something done. [his wife reminds him] He was vice chairman for two years. He was chairman of 10 committees. They got a new school for Williton.

[discussion with BJ about limitations of only having five minutes left in which to record; decision to continue longer]

When they were in Washford he travelled every day to Taunton teaching. He was there until 1970, then they had the Brain of Britain. He was elected to county council in 1974. That didn't go down at all well. It was felt that if you were teaching at a public school that ought to take all your time, and that he shouldn't have outside interests. Funnily enough that didn't apply to another member of staff who was a county councillor and also a Conservative. That was all right.  So they thought that was no good so he tried for parliament.

Clare was teaching at St Audrey's School. She was teaching French as well, at Taunton School and Latin. So for 2 or 3 years they struggled along. For one year they had just her salary. Then he thought that was no good. He was also teaching part time at St Audrey's. So they managed on effectively one salary, and of course it was bottom of the scale.

1975 was the trip to South Africa. Then by 1976 they just couldn't manage with that so there came an appointment at West Somerset School in Minehead. So he got that. He was there from 1977 to 81. He taught French. Then he got early retirement in1981-2. 1982-3 he was writing, writing, writing, trying to get published.

Somehow he still managed to stay on the West Somerset Education Panel. Ken Christopher said to him to come back on the county council. So he had a go. To his amazement he found himself back on the County Council. He was a minority of two. They were the first Liberals ever on the county council. It was Wilhemina Pinching [?sp] from Wells and himself. He enjoyed his time there.

The chairman of education was a very fair minded chap. He determined that it wasn't going to be a party business. So he asked GC if he would like to take libraries. He asked one of the Labour people if they would like to take museums. It worked out very nicely. He was very grateful for the chance. His ward was Williton. It was Williton, Washford and Old Cleeve. He was very proud to be representative for his home place. They were living at Washford. He was knocked off the council in 1977. Then teaching in Minehead until '82.

Then in '85 Ken Christopher said 'have a go' and he found himself on the council. And instead of being in a minority of 2, they were running it. Coming back he found there were people 30 years younger than himself with the same ideals. It was wonderful. Most of them were still earning a living so he said to them can we come to some arrangement. There was just 2 of them retiring age. Bill from Burnham and GC. They were very happy to take all the chairmanships if they could get on with things. He took Libraries as his main one but what he really wanted to do was Highways because he had seen so much damage done to the environment by the county surveyors. He looked at the road between Minehead and Porlock to see what was being done there, what was being cut. At least if he was chairman he could see what he could try and do about it. Then he had 11 committees or sub-committees altogether. Then after 2 years he was vice-chairman. Then he was on National Park for 12 years. [Back to top]
 

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MOVE TO ROADWATER / 'NOTES BY THE WAY' / NPA / BUILDING IN ROADWATER / ROADWATER INDEPENDENTS

After he had been on council for about a year he decided they couldn't carry on with the house at Washford, it was too huge. So they sold and moved up to Roadwater. They thought it might be a mistake to go because of the strong family connection with Washford but it worked out pretty well. He thought it might be regressive being bound too much to the past. It did work because it gave him an incentive to study even more the things he knew and getting it on paper. Also he had been writing for the Free Press ['Notes by the Way'] then for about 10 years. Also he had been on the National Park.

He got 'Notes by the Way' because he knew Jack Hurley, the editor, from about the 1940s. Jack was called up in 1940 and at that time he knew that GC was a musician. They asked GC if he would like to play the organ. He had never played but found it straightforward. He started to play the organ at Williton Chapel. He played regularly on Sundays until he went away in 1942, sitting in for Jack.

Then when they came back he met Jack quite a few times for gramophone sessions. He contributed various things to the Free Press and would drop in to see him from time to time. When Jack died he wrote to the Free press and asked if he could have a go at 'Notes by the Way.' Jack used to write them. Gareth Purcell was the editor then. Will Whiddon used to write them in dialect [gives an example]. GC didn't want that to drop out. You can still hear that way of speaking here and there. So he did that for 10 years.

The Notes had started about 100 years ago. They started as wry comments on events. Gradually more local events came in. By the time Clement Kille got going on them in the late 19^th century, they had become more short notes, 5 or 6 inches long, about events of local interest. Then it got wider afield and so it developed. Jack knew everybody around and he had such a fund of knowledge.

There is quite a collection, 2 metal files, boxes of notes, kept by GC, which can be used. The question is how interesting can you make them. He got his copy from them to some extent and from his own mind and what he picked up over the years. Some things were told by the family. He kept it going 10 years without really repeating himself very much. It covered a wide area, basically it's anywhere North Devon and anywhere in Somerset, in fact whatever links up. You can't talk about Minehead without talking about Padstow. You can't talk about Taunton without talking about the Monmouth Rebellion, without talking about Dorset. He enjoyed it. He still reads some of them from time to time, because he thinks they are jolly well written himself!

He hasn't got out and about recently. He used to until 4 or 5 years ago, but he is very much out of humour with the National Park Authority, because of what they have allowed in, in Roadwater. He knows that some permission was given but the way they rushed and forced through the decision about 2 years ago was disgraceful. They were in a hurry to get away and home for Christmas. It was disgraceful.

It was planning permission. The empty space in the village was going to be lost. The house that they permitted there was within 5 feet of the road. It was losing empty space, crowding together, and houses out of character in size. At the planning meeting they were obviously impatient and unwilling to hear the objections. It was a shocking meeting. He has been out of humour with them ever since. They say things are now better. It felt all wrong. Roadwater not being in Exmoor itself was somehow regarded as a bit of a nuisance. It's within the Exmoor boundaries but not within the high land of Exmoor. It's not within the part that gets much recommendation or support from the Exmoor Society either. With it's historical interest, it is to his mind, possibly because he has studied it more, and it's sense of continuity, its character, is as distinct as anywhere.

There are some very independently minded people in Roadwater. They wouldn't necessarily want to be named. There is one who appears eccentrically dressed, a farmer. There are not so many as there were. For one thing the population is so diluted now. When they were living there, there were only 7 or 8 households who were Somerset. When he thinks of independent characters GC means largely people who were Roadwater born.

[BJ mentions that she has talked to Harry Horrobin] Harry is definitely a character. He has been there a good few years now. GC has been trying to think of some independent characters who have given something and Harry is one. [Back to top]
 

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FATHER'S PASSION FOR WEST SOMERSET AND COLLECTION OF OLD THINGS / STARTING PRIVATE MUSEUM IN WASHFORD / FATHER'S COLLECTION / MOVE FROM ROADWATER / RETURN VISITS / DEVELOPMENT OF VILLAGE /MEETING THE QUEEN / WRITING FAMILY HISTORY AND OTHER BOOKS / COUNTRY SONGS / HISTORY OF THE VALLEY

GC's father was passionate about West Somerset. If there was anything that reminded him of a happy childhood he would keep it. Other people, in the 1920s would throw it out, saying it was old-fashioned. His father would save it. There was a penny farthing bicycle made by the village blacksmith, by Nathaniel Brook and ridden by John Bond the animal doctor. It got thrown out on the rubbish heap. So his father got it. Then he put it on loan in Taunton Museum from the 1920s. Then GC and his wife Clare got it back in the 1950s when they started a private museum. They took it on. About 10 years ago they presented it to the village hall in Roadwater. It's now on the village hall wall, so that it is a permanent mascot as it were.

He kept other things. He kept a lathe from his great grandfather William George from Watchet. He not only made things, he made the lathe to do it. GC's father kept that. Unfortunately it has gone now, when GC was away in the army. There was one thing after another. It reminded his father of boyhood and he thought so much had been thrown away that he must keep it If it's physical GC also keeps it.

His father would even go to the sales to buy things. He knew that the old Watchet hymn book was being sold at Mr Prideaux's sales. He made sure he got that. His motorcycle from 1913 was out in the shed. He never used it but he kept it. A friend of theirs in Milverton has got that.

When they came back to live at Washford Clare thought there was enough there to start a museum. So they did. They kept it going for about 5 or 6 years. Then the wind took the roof off so they had to close it down. They've still got most of the things. They have all his great grandfather's shoe-making kit. They have his work boards.

They moved from Roadwater [to Williton] 8 months ago. They had been thinking about it for a couple of years. They knew that the development was going to come in Roadwater, so they started talking about it 2-3 years ago. Then it seemed to hang fire for a year or more. They thought that perhaps they hadn't got the money. Then they started hearing planning noises again they thought they had better get out, because they lost their view. The place where his grandfather was born was just swallowed up. The beautiful centre was going to be developed.

They go back most Sundays for chapel service, it really is almost heart breaking what they have allowed to be done in the centre of Roadwater, when they could have controlled it. They couldn't have stopped it but they could have controlled it. It's so utterly out of character.

[BJ asks about a photograph on the wall of GC shaking hands with the Queen.] That was taken 1985 while he was chairman of libraries. The Queen came down. He understands that, the chairman of the council at the time was Bill Drower. He had been a diplomat, he was a Liberal and he was very friendly with one of the Queen's equerries. He had suggested that the Queen be invited to come down to Taunton. There had never been a member of the royal family in Taunton ever since the Monmouth Rebellion. The invitation was not turned down so he was presented as chairman of libraries.

As well as the Roadwater book, he has written his family history on both sides. It's about 80 or 90,000 words altogether, his mother and father's side. He has written a novel that he is still trying [?to get published] called 'The Defence of Wessex'. It's about 25,000 words, identifying and trying to sort out the possibilities where all these things took place. He has written another one [book] which is taking over his thesis once again. That is the life of Hector Berlioz, in the light of literature. He did the one of the valley. When he started writing about 30 years ago, he had the idea of writing a book of Britons, a thousand Britons. He did about 300 of them and sent the book up to Oxford University Press. They said thank you very much but were not contemplating that at the moment. His wife has always been suspicious of that because about 18 months later they brought out a book of Britons!

The other thing he has done is writing country songs. He has been taking some of their Somerset stories, putting them into verse, to some well known folk tunes, or making his own tunes. He has done 9 or 10 now. He has done the story of his grandfather and the mineral line gates, and other stories of Brendon Hill. Again he thinks he will find a publisher some day but not yet. He could publish them himself. He has written a history of the valley up to the 18^th century. He hasn't gone beyond the 18^th so far. That is the Roadwater valley.

He reads the Independent newspaper, but he is getting a bit tired of it because it seems a little bit London-type, yuppy orientated. It ought to be a lot of things it isn't. He sometimes thinks it is written by sex-mad Londoners! He thinks perhaps he is doing it wrong but he doesn't think he is. [Back to top]
 

2/9

IDENTITY AND REFLECTIONS / BURMA SERVICE / LOVE OF SOMERSET / PLAYING THE PIANO / IMPORTANCE OF ARMY SERVICE / LIBERAL PARTY MEMBERSHIP

GC feels very much West Somerset, but he also feels as anyone would, born within the magic boundaries, part of Somerset as a whole. He has an affinity with Wiltshire people from his mother and Gloucester too. He loves dear old Devon, particularly North Devon. North Devon used to be the one part of the country where a commercial traveller never bothered to get a signature for an order because he said that in North Devon your word was as good as your bond. It was still very much like that when they lived there. He doesn't know about now.

His army service in Burma was one of the most memorable parts of his life. It meant more and more as times went on. He was very fortunate to come through when so many didn't. People think you are just looking back to a time. It's hard to explain. You were involved in one of the great enterprises, bringing freedom to [people]. He still has one or two friends from that time. This why they keep it up, why they lay their wreath and that is why they remember them, the ones who didn't come back.. Apart from his marriage that is the thing that is there. His childhood gave him a love of Somerset.

Somerset is the thing, West Somerset, Roadwater and Watchet and all the way up the valley, because when he was a small boy they would take him out in the mail van. They would go up this valley to places he had never been before. The postman might say that there is Greenland up there [gives more examples in dialect]. That is one thing that has made him a complete romantic. It's a place of beauty and imagination.

If he's miserable GC plays the piano. It would be Brahms or Beethoven or sometimes some Spanish music, sometimes some New Orleans. When he thinks of heaven it is sitting in one of the meadows between Roadwater and Hayne and listening to the music that Brahms didn't have time on write on earth. Brahms is the centre of his musical world.

He would like to talk more about the army. He is very grateful to the army. He had a very easy upbringing. The army did a lot for him in that way. He's in the Queen's Royal Regiment. They meet sometimes. Once a Queen's man always a Queen's man. He was only in it for 3 or 4 years but it meant that you had been part of something that did matter. He also feels like that about the time he had in the Liberal party. They were in such a minority and you encountered so much hostility. People would cross the street rather than speak to his wife. If they can't get at you they get at your wife. It's much better now. He thinks it's so much better because he is not so active as he was!  Hostility is always more obvious coming from the female sex. He doesn't know why it should be. She found that even in the guides it was very strong there. But there you are!

[RECORDING ENDS] [Back to top]