FROM THE ARCHIVES A Look back at some of the people we have featured in the Marshwood Vale Magazine
In September 2010
Robin Mills met David Longly in Sydling St Nicholas
David Longly, photograph by Robin Mills
“ORIGINALLY I come from Hythe, in Kent, where I was born 83 years ago. My father was a builder, and I had two brothers and a sister. We lived there until 1940, about the time of the evacuation of Dunkirk. That was when my school was evacuated also, but we went to Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, where it was thought to be a lot safer for children in case there was an invasion. I was there for two years, and when I came back, I started my apprenticeship as a plumber, working for my father. When I was old enough, I registered for National Service. If you waited until they called you up, you went where you were told, including coal mines, which wasn’t very appealing, but since I’d volunteered, I was able to join the Navy, just before my 17th birthday. After training, we went over to Ostend, to join a minesweeper. By now the war was over, and we spent 3 months or so sweeping German mines, up and down the coast of France, Belgium and Holland. One job we had was to retrieve a sunken German armed trawler from St Peter Port, in Guernsey. It had been raised from the seabed where it had lain for two years, and we had to tow it back to Willhelmshaven in Germany. The trawler was classified as a war grave, with the bodies of German sailors still on board, so it wasn’t pleasant, and after we crossed the North Sea we were met by 7 German E-boats, who escorted us into port. After that, we were transferred to fishery protection, going with the fleets from Grimsby and Aberdeen up to Bear Island in the Arctic. We also went to Loch Fyne, helping the herring fleets find their catch with our Asdic echo sounders, which we had been using to detect mines. I spent 3 years in the Navy in all and enjoyed it, so when I came out I finished my plumbing apprenticeship. Things weren’t too good in the building trade at that time, and I found it hard to settle down. In 1949 Mary and I got married. Then in 1953, my brother-in-law, Bob Browning, who was farming here in Sydling St Nicholas, offered me a job.
28 The Marshwood Vale Magazine September - 2 2020 Tel. 01308 423031
