TONY FALLING OUT OF THE SKY
& OTHER STORIES: A FAMILY HISTORY
Dedicated to those we lost too soon,
John Arthur Stevens - 28th February 1937 to 2nd January 2003 Brenda Lilian Stevens - 1st May 1938 to 31st March 1987 Neil Kennedy Stevens - 8th June 1968 to 14th June 2005
We carry your stories with us
A Family History | 3
Contents: Peter Geoffrey Lake 8. Childhood 6. Basic Information
12. The Navy
20. Basic Information 22. Childhood
Olive Brenda Lake
4 | Tony Falling From The Sky
16. Career
25. Travel
16. Achievements
19. Advice
John Arthur Stevens 28. My father on his father
27. Advice 26. Women's RAF
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Peter Geoffrey Lake 9th July 1930 - present. Birthplace The Butts, Alton, Hampshire.
Places lived throughout the year Alton, Bath, North Wraxall, London, Weybridge, Byfleet, Walton-On-Thames, Ilminster grandpa through the decades. 1950's 1970's & 1980's
Occupations: Electricians Mate Engine Fitter Multi-task Fitter Air Conditioning Engineer Charge Hand Head of Department (British Aerospace)
Favourite Hobby Upholstery & Chair Caning
Favourite Song Hoagy Carmichael - ‘Georgia On My Mind’
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Childhood
“
I
don’t think I’ve got one specific memory from my childhood,
when I lived in Weybridge, it was mostly taken up with the war time, everyday was different, if it was the summertime you just
went out and played, it was surreal really. Before that we lived in the pub at North Wraxall, my father owned the pub, he was a professional violinist and he used to play in the silent movies in Weybridge and in Alton, Hampshire, which is where I was born, and he was also a violinist at the cinema. I was too young to see him play before we moved to Bath for a short period of time and then we moved to the pub where my father took the licence on at North Wraxall. That was where I was of an age where I could start to remember things, between the ages of 2 to 5. My memory there was that we used to make our own electricity, my father used to run a generator during the nighttime for the cars coming down the road, it was the only place around that there was electric light in the village. The engine used to start on petrol and then run on Paraffin and I remember one day going down to the tank
“
left: the violin owned by my great grandfather that he used to teach his students. Handed down to me as I used to play violin as a child, however it has never been restored.
on my own and opening the tap and flooding the place with Paraffin!
right: My great grandfather working as a waiter at a garden party event.
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A
“
nother time I was taken by a steam lorry, these two chaps would drive the steam lorry taking some stone from Bath, from the quarry there to Chippenham, they
called into the pub for their lunch, and they said to my father “can we take Peter with us on the lorry?” which they did, on the steam lorry, and when I’d gone my mother had been looking for me and she said to my father “Where’s Peter?” “I don’t know, I don’t know where he is” he replied and he’d forgotten all about it, I think he’d had a couple of drinks. It was absolutely pouring with rain, as black as night, and my mother is wondering around the village, asking people where I was!
“
That was my most memorable time, but the steam lorry, even now sticks in my mind, a great big Sentinel, Sentinel Steam Lorry. Photos taken from outside the Shoe Inn, North Wraxall, owned by my great grandfather. Photos taken in the early to mid 1930’s. Grandpa with his father, Arthur, mother, Mabel, and grandmother Margaret.
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The Navy
“
T
he Navy taught me discipline, self reliance and being tolerant with other people, I think it made me more assured of my self, more confident and more able to help other
people as well, also being able to cope with different situations as they arise.
My nickname in the Navy was Swany, I got that when I first joined the Navy and it followed me right the way through, for seven and a half years, on every ship I went on, somebody knew me or knew of my name, even when I came out and I was on reserve, somebody wrote to me and addressed it to me as ‘Swany Lake’, and I didn’t know him and they didn’t know me, it was only through a mutual friend. I remember coming in to Hong Kong, we were due to come off the ship it was the end of our commission, and when you pay off on a ship you fly a pennant, a paying off pennant, the longer you’ve been on the commission the longer the pennant is and ours when we got off the ship, at that time, was the longest it had ever been, the pennant flag that they put up was three times longer than the length of the ship, because our commission was so long, we were on board for two years and eleven months or so. Normally the commission would run at two years and six months but because the Korean War was on, and we were up there in Korea, there was an army group called the Gloucester’s, they’d had a bit of a bashing there, and the troop ship that we were supposed to come home on, they asked the captain of the ship if they didn’t mind if they could put the Gloucester’s on the ship and we would stay on board the Concorde until there was transport available, it was put to the ships company and we stayed on board for another two months, but it paid of for us in the end because we came back on a far better ship, an immigration boat that used to go down to New Zealand, Captain Hobson was the name of the boat, we came home on that and we had waiter service, it was just like luxury!
“
Grandpa in his Naval uniform at HMS Raleigh, 6 months after joining, along side is medals for his involvement in the Korean war and below, the German E Boat 55/14 which they sailed back to Germany.
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left: Grandpa aboard the Concorde with fellow sailors on the mess deck. right: ‘Guardians Of Freedom’, this is the booklet that Grandpa received along with a shilling when he joined the Navy in March 1948, aged seventeen.
“
J
apan was the best place I visited. I can remember the first time going to Japan, I’d been on watch in the engine room, while in the Navy, I was down in the engine room
and I came out onto the upper deck and we were going up through the inland sea of Japan. The sea is very narrow there you can sort of touch one island to another island. It was the way everything was so precise in the agriculture, because it’s so mountainous there, to make the most of it, everything was stepped, so they would come down like a big stairwell, growing on the flat bit that they had cut into the mountain. That still sticks in my mind now, the actual landscape of Japan, and of course I found the people of Japan very humble, when you think of what they had done to them with the atomic bomb. I’ve been to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, you just can’t equate the damage that was done to them and the people. It’s a
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“
place where I would most definitely like to go back to.
top right: Grandpa in his sailors uniform while in Hong Kong, 1951. bottom right: grandpa on board the Concorde in 1951.
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I
went to British Aerospace, or Vickers-Armstrong as it was
called when I first joined, straight from the Navy and I started off as an aircraft fitter, but when I joined British Aerospace you had to put
Career
“
down what you’d done previously and through my records they’d found out I’d worked in steam and refrigeration and they asked me if I would like to transfer to that department, the Millwrites, which I did. I was in the Millwrites for about a year, then we moved away from there and started our own department, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning. Because I’d done steam, they made me a Charge Hand (someone that oversees fitters and the other workers) I was a Charge Hand for 20 years or so and then, when the head
“
of department retired, I took over and was head of the department for 12 years. I was at British Aerospace for 34 years.
Grandma and Grandpa on their wedding day, 1955.
T
he big achievements in my life are segmented really, there’s family life, bringing up three children, providing for three children and a wife and there’s work achievements. I
think one achievement is saving money for British Aerospace at the time, we installed a system that would save the company about 2 million [pounds], by reorganising steam lines and heating systems. I think that was a big
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“
achievement but I think other achievements are as I say, family life really.
Achievements
“
the Captain Hobson, the ship that grandpa returned on after their ship was used by the Gloucester infantry.
the German E Boat 55/14 that grandpa returned to Germany.
Grandpa on deck of the Concorde, 40 miles out from Vladivostok.
the Concorde, the ship grandpa stayed on for an extra few months until they were picked up by the Captain Hobson.
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y best piece of advice is to listen, to listen to what the other person is saying, I used to often jump in
“
Advice
M
“
and sort of read what I thought they were going to
say and it often wasn’t that at all.
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Olive Brenda Lake 31st March 1933 - present. Preferred Name Brenda
Birthplace Moreton on the Wirral
Places lived throughout the year Cheshire, Cosford (on the Women’s RAF base camp), Hersham, Weybridge, Walton-On-Thames, Ilminster
Occupations: Household Manageress
Favourite Hobby Painting & Drawing
Favourite Song Reberta Flack - ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’
Portrait photo of Grandma and Grandpa, taken by Grandma’s father who worked as a photographer, documenting bombed landscapes in World War II.
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Childhood
“
G
rowing up I was really privileged because I lived about 10 minutes walk to the sea and the sea shore and the sand, 5 minutes to a river and 10 minutes walk up past the field
there was a lake, so even the children at school were all taught to swim because we were all surrounded by water, it was an amazing place to live now that I can look at it from afar, with rivers and the sea and sand it was a lovely place to live. In the field near to where we lived we dug out a play house, it was quite big, we had a fireplace in there and used to stick old wall paper up the walls, it was only a walk away from the river so we always had some water to play in. Everything was walking distance away, we didn’t have any transport, but we never even thought about transport, we just walked everywhere. Once my little brother was climbing up the local light, a big light at the end of the road when something near by made a big noise and he fell to the ground, I can always remember that, Tony falling out of the sky. He must of hurt himself but you didn’t complain then if you hurt yourself doing something because it’s your own fault, you should know before you start
“
whether you take the risk or not. [She laughs] We thought he was dead, at least we hoped so as we’d never seen a dead person! top: Grandma 10 months old 1934. bottom left: Grandma during her 3 years with the WRAF. bottom right: Tony, Grandma’s brother.
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“
M
y Grandpa, was the grandpa of the whole estate, I used to have to cue up to talk to him sometimes, he was always surrounded by children, he used to
sit near the bus stop at the top of our road, and everybody knew him, they would all go to him for advice because you knew you would get a true answer to whatever you asked. I used to feel quite proud of the fact that he was my grandpa. I don’t think people would do that these days, have everyone go and ask your grandpa. He would give you the answer that he knew you wanted, it might not be the truth but he knew you and would know what you needed to hear. My grandmother was a house keeper for a gentleman, my lasting
“
memory is that every Friday she would make rock cakes when she came to visit. She was a lovely old lady, she was quite posh actually.
Grandma with Grandmother Fielding & her grandfather Whitingham, the “Grandfather of the whole village”
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“
T
here are so many favourite places that I have visited, I’ve had quite a long life so far but usually my favourite places
“
Travel
Grandma aged 15 in 1948
have got water, either a river, a lake or the sea, I’ve always
liked to be near water.
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Women’s RAF
was seventeen when I was in the WRAFs [Women’s Royal Air Force] I used to work in the shop, it was a big store that sold tunics
“
I
“
and all sorts of things that you could wear which was on the camp.
M
“
y advice is never do anything that you don’t have some information about, you don’t do something just because somebody asked you to do it, you find
out why and what for. You’re less likely to get into trouble then!
“
Advice
Grandma as part of the ‘Passing Out Parade’ for the Women’s Royal Air Force
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John Arthur Stevens
My father on his father
28th February 1937 to 2nd January 2003
D
ad was not from an affluent family and grew up on a council estate, he went to Ambleside Boys school, which was the same as Peter. During the 50’s he was
a ‘teddy boy’ (an old rock ’n’ roller with slick back hair, well presented and sported a hairline moustache). His first jobs were as a gardeners and grounds-keeper with his farther at St Martins School, Then he worked through an apprenticeship with Vickers-Armstrong (British Aerospace) at Brooklands in Weybridge, he was a fibreglass expert making wings for VC10’s and 1-11 aircraft. He also worked on the nose-cone for Concorde and the canopy for the Prince of Wales’ investiture using fibreglass. Because we weren’t a wealthy family, any toys that we couldn’t afford, dad used to make at work and would have to cover them up from other work colleagues with a rag as he wasn’t allowed to make them. My two
Photo of Granddad when he was a boy and a Cameo of him, the name ‘Steve’ on the cameo is because my nanna had previously been in a relationship with a ‘John’ so she decided to call him ‘Steve’ instead, this stuck and everyone knew him as Steve Stevens
favourites that he made was a robot he made from pop rivets and the other one was a chariot; there were soldier’s made by a company called ‘Britons’ which made collectable soldiers with interchangeable parts, dad made the chariot out of wood and fibre glass in a way so it could be interchangeable with the Britons toys. In the nativity, I was a roman centurion and dad made a spear and a shield out of plywood which he had formed and I was the envy of everyone in the play. Anything that we liked he would go away and make them at work, he made everything, even his own toolbox and his Bowls box for when he played at the sports and social club.
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Dad always wanted to buy his own house, all of his siblings lived and rented in council houses, his father told him that a mortgage would be a “millstone around his neck” however he was determined to be the first in his family and wanted to get his mortgage paid off by the time he was 40, which he did. But that meant that he worked all the time, he worked at Vicars Armstrong and also in a boat builders yard (James Taylor Yacht company) in Walton-on-Thames, in the evenings and weekends, there were only two of them, one was the mechanic and dad, because of his artisan skills, was responsible for shaping and building the hulls out of fibre glass and also fitting out all the cabins. Finally he worked for British Airways as an Air Load Supervisor. Whilst he was working there he had a uniform that looked almost identical to a pilot's, which my sister Lisa used to love as when he picked her up from school as he looked just like a pilot. British Airways was shift work, and because of his ethos on working he was also a handyman for 2 wealthy families and would do anything, no matter how small. He built his own shed in the garden and did lots of extra jobs on the side for other people such as making attachments out of bamboo for dog leads. One of my favourite memories of dad was making the dog lead bits, my mother was working nights as a cleaner so my father fixed up an intercom system to my bedroom, he would have it on to listen to us to make sure we went to bed. One night my brother Paul and I made a little camp using our sheets between our single beds, we were messing around and dad was able to tell us to go to bed, even from the shed, he must have seen our torches as we were playing. He was a true artisan, and could turn his hand to almost anything, nothing fazed him, Mum would request something from bookshelves to landscaping and he would sketch it out and make it. He loved the tools of his trade and looked after them.
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Photo of Granddad & nanna holding my dad.
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D
ad was a very social person, a very big personality, always playing the host and having parties. He was the life and soul of any party, from the youngsters to the
oldies, getting everyone laughing. He was very headstrong and a big family man, not just his children but his siblings and parents. He was very close to Alf and Dennis, his brothers. He could be selfish and frugal with money but then again could be massively generous when he wanted to be, you could never say no to him especially when it came to food and if he wanted to make you something. We remember him taking us out for a Sunday lunch… at Tesco where we had to eat in shifts! Photos of my Granddad with My Nana Brenda, who passed away before I was born.
When he moved to Westwood Ho! he found a new lease of life, he loved being by the sea and going for walks with the dog, his whole philosophy changed from being focussed on work to loving his surroundings. When he moved he made sure that his new home was big enough for his family to be around especially at the holidays.
My father as a child riding the rocking horse that my brother and I had when we were little.
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TONY FALLING OUT OF THE SKY & OTHER STORIES: A FAMILY HISTORY
