World War 1

The Diaries of Russell James Sparrow 1908 to 1991

famous preacher, living in America and general secretary for the Seventh Day Adventists. A few years back he changed his name to Seaton,

I don’t know why, I can remember hiding under the table when a Zeppelin raided Ipswich and destroyed some houses in All Saints Road, quite close to us, and seeing some German planes flying low over the allotments at the bottom of our garden in broad daylight and hearing the newsboys shouting “Kitchener drowned” when H.M.S. Hampshire was sunk.

Dad had joined the Royal Flying Corps and after training at Farnborough he was posted to Catterick in Yorkshire where after a time Mother and I joined him, Bernard having returned home. At that time Catterick was a small village with Church, school and two or three shops with a stream (beck) running through the middle of the green. We stayed with a brother and sister by the name of Todd, in a little cottage which was on one side of the beck whereas the school which I attended was on the other side. The method of crossing the beck was by stepping stones which I made an awful habit of missing. It was a lovely little spot within reach of Ripon and Richmond which we used to visit. After about twelve months or more Dad was posted to Montrose in Scotland and we followed him living in a small flat

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The Diaries of Russell James Sparrow 1908 to 1991

over Mr Hurry’s bakers shop at the bottom of the High Street. The smells (mainly gingerbread) from that shop still linger on. There was an electric street light just outside the shop and at one time it developed a leak so if you touched it you got a shock. We used to play a game, sort of survival of the fittest, by joining hands and making a circuit and as the weak ones dropped out so the shock became greater for those still left. I went to school at the Academy and palled up with two boys, one from the Queen’s Head and we had some good times there but I can’t remember his name, and the other Raymond Green whose father was in India where they had previously lived. Mrs Green would take Ray, his sister and I swimming in the sea and we would change on the dunes, and that’s where I first learned what little girls were made of! I played golf and had a few clubs specially made for me, we all went fishing from the jetty, often with great success and in fact the first time Mother came with us she landed five in one go! One of the fish fairly common but not edible was called a gun fish. It had a sharp spike on top of its head and it was the delight of nasty little boys (including R.J.S.) to catch these and put a cork on the spike, throw them back and watch them trying to fully submerge. Across the water from Montrose was a little fishing village called Ferryden and we would often go over there for picnics etc.

On one occasion when we were all on the beach at Montrose I left Mother and Dad, joined up with a gang of boys and we took a boat out on our own. We were some way out from shore when a squall developed and this together with a fast receding tide was taking us out to sea very fast. By this time I was missed and Dad who was looking around for me spotted the boat and saw what was happening and blew furiously on his whistle, which was part of his uniform, to attract our attention and indicate for us to come back before it was too late. When we did eventually see him or see people waving frantically from the beach it was too late for us to do much about it

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The Diaries of Russell James Sparrow 1908 to 1991

and we were drifting out to sea. However they managed to get out to us and one or two men got into our boat and rowed us ashore. The twinkle in Dad’s eye that day was not a merry one and a Royal Flying Corps swagger cane was used for a purpose other than intended! Having since become the father of a son who had similar lapses I can appreciate that giving vent is the aftermath of acute anxiety. We became very friendly with a farming family called Allen and they had a river running through their land and I spent many hours canoeing on it. I would spend as much time as possible on the aerodrome and although I wasn’t allowed to get airborne I was able to sit in the cockpits of Sopwith Pups, Bristol fighters and the 461 Avro. Bagpipe bands fascinated me and I followed one of these for miles one day and once again caused consternation in the Sparrow household. In the centre of Sopwith Pup the High Street was a shop noted for its Oki-Poki (ice cream) and owned by an Italian with a huge stomach and a very small son and this pair would often stand in front of the shop with the wee laddie sheltering under the canopy formed by his father’s belly. I had my first Norfolk suit there complete with Eton collar and Bertie Willie bow. Apparently a very anxious time was experienced by Dad who was a Flight Sergeant at the time in the new R.A.F. when he was to face a Court Martial for crossing swords with a certain Sergeant Major (later Warrant Officer) Ridd and although the charge was dismissed I’ve heard Dad say since that that episode stopped any further promotion for him.

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