SYNOPSIS

This Is How It Was

an Autobiography covering the years 1937-1997

by David Hunt

Because of my involvement in amateur dramatics, from 1952 onwards, it seemed appropriate to apply theatrical headings to the chapters of the book.

(Warning: the full memoir would print out on some 200 pages of A4 paper, as it is almost 140,000 words long! Sorry about that.)

The Prologue consists of just 1 page, 600 words, and is an introduction to the memoir.

The Overture is 6 pages long, 3,500 words, and gives a brief family history. Poignant letters from the trenches in 1914, from uncles who did not survive the First World War, show the intimate and God-fearing way, of those days. Such documents underline the need for us all to keep a record of the major events in our lives, and to pass on our own contribution for the junior members of the family to add to, and thus continue.

 

Act I - Early Years Primary School, 1942-1949, 8 pages, 5,300 words, gives a brief sketch of my early days, and a fuller portrait of the way of life in post-war Britain. Life at school, with numerous anecdotes on the ways that street kids entertained themselves. Identity cards, Sunday school, Royal Wedding, the extreme weather in 1947, holidays, conkers, marbles, rag-and-bone man, collecting pennies, roller skates, the chimney sweep, fishing, amateur dramatics, choirboy,

 

Act II - Grammar School, covers the period 1949-1956.

       Scene 1 - Early Days, 8 pages, 5,800 words. Passing the 11-plus, blazer and badge, teachers, foreign visit, death of the King, small part in operatics at Chester Royalty Theatre, schoolwork, school play, a television in the house, moving house into the Cheshire countryside, the Coronation,

       Scene 2 - Growing Up, 7 pages, 4,900 words. GCE examinations, keeping poultry, swimming the Dee Mile, holidays, French family visit, applying for university, dancing days, the National Service Registrations Act, developing art as a favourite subject, pass driving test, dangerous world situation, rejected for regular career in army, called up.

 

Act III - National Service, 1956-1958.

       Scene 1 - Square Bashing,    11 pages, 7,900 words. Royal Berkshire Regiment at Reading, army number, verbal abuse, reveille, categories of recruit, guard duties, weapons, parades, army Christmas, hand grenades, passing out parade. The Royal Army Educational Corps at Beaconsfield in Berkshire, syndicates, teaching practices, duties, lecturettes, promoted to sergeant, home leave, postings, troopship, no passport needed, Canary Islands, teaching on board, Cape Town, Durban, Colombo, Singapore.

    Scene 2 - Singapore, 9 pages, 6,200 words. Arrival at the trade school for boy recruits, cricket, swimming, awarded the General Service Medal clasp ‘Malaya’. Summer camp on an island, Merdeka Day, duties, initiation into alcohol and tobacco. Inspections, dropping a big clanger, twentieth birthday on duty, mess functions, the RSM sides with me, painting murals for the Officers’ Mess, Christmas, social life.

       Scene 3 - Old Soldier, 8 pages, 5,700 words. Physical tests, invited to sign-on as a regular, parties in the mess, military life, farewell functions, amateur dramatics. Start of ‘tombola tour’, indulgence flight to Hong Kong, a shave with death, taking A Level art, more farewells, flying back via Bangkok, Calcutta, Karachi, Abadan, Brindisi, then arrival at London Airport. Pre-release medical from the army.

 

Act IV - College Years, 1958-1961.

       Scene 1 - Student Life, 8 pages, 5,900 words. Interview at Chester Diocesan Training College, in the first year, halls of residence, up all night in trouble with the police, fellow students, a boozy Dee Mile, The George & Dragon Shit House Choir, cloistered life, an immoral student, teaching practice.

       Scene 2 - Student Days, 9 pages, 6,400 words. College choir, steward for Frankie Vaughan, participate in the International Eisteddeford in N Wales. Rag Days, Old Boys, social calendar, part-time photographer, falling in love, academic stuff. Thinking of the future, qualified as a teacher, voluntary third year course, student at my old grammar school, mature students from the army, stage hand at the Chester Royalty Theatre, travel on the new M1 motorway, first teaching job, courting days.

 

Act V - Cheshire, 1961-1964, 8 pages, 5,000 words. Teaching at Ellesmere Port Grammar School, pass motor scooter driving test, on strike, staff-room bridge club, handicraft course, co-ed grammar school becomes single sex, tour of Scotland, school plays and operettas, Kennedy assassinated, appointed to teach in an army childrens’ school overseas, marriage, honeymoon in Eire.

 

Act VI - Singapore, 1964-1967.

       Scene 1 - Singapore Teacher, 10 pages, 7,500 words. A day in Bombay, arrive in Singapore, teaching in a basha hut, a tyrant headmaster. Finding an amah, joining the theatre club, the Tanglin Club, telephone calls to the UK, changing schools, death of Churchill. Day-trips to Singapore city, promotion, Duke of Edinburgh visits school, night school, hectic social life, tour of peninsula Malaya, change schools and demotion.

       Scene 2 - Singapore Days & Nights, 10 pages, 7,500 words. Operatics, swimming, school plays, producing staff play, another promotion, trip to Bangkok, Manila, Hong Kong and Tokyo, Singapore breaks-away from Malaysia. Third place in Singapore Drama Festival, jungle trek, red-light areas, another staff play, apply for teaching tour in Europe, farewell to the Far East.

 

Act VII - Germany, Hostert, 1967-1969, 11 pages, 8,000 words. Teaching in a former German lunatic asylum, finding accommodation with a German family, mess life, applying for a job. Touring the Rhine and Mosel Valleys, becoming mess treasurer, birth of a son, promoted, writing a full-length play. Applying to join the army, allocated a married quarter, touring caravan days, meetings, appointed to head of department status, change of venue and accommodation.

 

Act VIII - Germany, Münster, 1969-1974, 16 pages, 11,500 words. Senior staff member, school play in Wilhelmshaven, holiday in Denmark, mess treasurer again, social life, amateur dramatics, ordering equipment and supplies from the army. Birth of a daughter, reject slip from McMillan Education, summer school at Shoreditch near Windsor, producing a play again, BAOR Drama Festival. Meeting at school with HRH Dowager Duchesss of Gloucester, HMI Inspection, promoted again, the future and job applications, visit to Cardiff with HMI, runners-up in Drama Festival. Streaking at a party, cartoonist for Services Caravan Club, participating in an Old Time Music Hall, officers’ mess functions, turning down a job in Liverpool, acting days, final promotion.

 

Act IX - Germany, Rheindahlen, 1974-1986.

       Scene 1 - Queens School, 17 pages, 12,600 words. Head of Faculty in HQ BAOR, living in No 1 Civilian Officers’ Mess, joining the Rhine Army Theatre Society (RATS). School plays, a major’s status, garrison pantomime, the craft centre, more acting. A woman prime minister; a Lord, a Bishop, a Priest and a Pope teaching at my school; carved signboard for the C-in-C BAOR. Car crash on the autobahn, behind-the-scenes for the pantomime, falling off bicycle and breaking arm, summer school at Caerleon College in S Wales. Death of the leading actor, marriage breakdown, living as a single man, appointed President of the Mess Committee (PMC), fortieth birthday. Met David Sullivan the porno king, landed part of Buttons in pantomime, sort out rowdiness in the mess bar, making speeches, a boozy friend.

       Scene 2 - Ratty & Messy Days, 20 pages, 15,000 words. Playing with senior officers, mess managers hired and fired, met BBC Any Questions team in the mess. Designing a first-day-cover for the school, the garrison garden fete, more acting and stage managing, mess character problems, playing the dame, courting again, RAF (Germany) Handicrafts judge. PMC duties, civil service rugby club boozers on tour, re-marriage. Acting days, become secretary of RATS, judging Guy Fawkes, hospital bed race, touring Europe, night school. House-hunting in W Sussex.

       Scene 3 - Widening Horizons, 18 pages, 13,000 words. Visits to Berlin and Hitler’s lair in Bavaria. Job interviews in UK, joining the freemasons, casino night in the mess, visitors misbehave, happy hours, violence erupts. Package holidays, stage manager, pantomime clown, October Fest, academic life, the mess Christmas. President of the World Flat Earth Society, name-dropping, an ugly sister, departure from BAOR.

 

Act X - London, 1986-1997, 10 pages, 7,000 words. Arrival at Walthamstow, London, E17. The Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday, steward at the Royal Albert Hall, move to Essex, fiftieth birthday. Editorial contributions to school life, educational disillusionment, get early retirement, health problems. A mobile home in Kent, holidays in the Med and the Far East, appointed to a part-time post at a girls’ Independent school in Essex, tourists in London. Off to live in British North Borneo.