Extracts
from English Hartwright Reminiscences about life during
World
War II 1939 -1945.
A family man's experience in the Royal Artillery
From John Edmund Hartwright’s Reminiscences
1908 - 1996
by kind permission of his wife Edith
John and Edith with their eldest child Paul
What a difference being young makes. We seemed to take everything in our stride then. During the Second World War I was in a “reserved occupation” and so was not called up until the age of 35 in 1943. There were so many in the building trade called up at the same time as me that my trade was full up and I had to join the Royal Artillery as a driver. I trained over in Ireland in Omagh and learnt to drive trucks that towed the guns. We were made ready for D-Day and I was in Sussex, just about to go to France, when I was admitted to Southlands Hospital. They operated on my gall bladder, but it was a teaching hospital and they gave me a good overhaul and another operation followed. In all I was there three months! Edith and young Paul came down from Malvern in Worcestershire, to live near the hospital and visited me every day. Children weren’t really allowed in the hospital, but Edith was able to sneak him in or she would let him play outside in the summer-house.
During the war, Edith, like everyone else, had to take in people as lodgers who were involved in hush-hush work at the Radar Research and Development Establishment (RRDE) which was based in Malvern. Meanwhile I had rejoined the Royal Artillery and we eventually reached Hanover in Germany, where we were in mopping up operations in the area of Belsen Concentration Camp, where we saw former prisoners making their way home. The devastation everywhere was terrible.
