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My grandfother Robert was born in Alva Scotland in 1915. He left school aged 13 to help support his widowed mother and four siblings, as did all of the three boys. He worked in a mill but he took himself off to night school and eventually university. He studied engineering and gained top qualifications. He moved down to London in 1938 for a company that I believe was called Modern Wheel Drive. As this was a reserved occupation he did not serve in the conventional way. He worked on landing gears and I believe propellors. He told my mother that he had also worked on a project that he only knew a X. He also worked as a fire warden, and there is a wonderful letter my family has which shows this gentle man's feeling towards the German bombers. (I hope to write a transcript of this at some point) More importantly, at least for my family, is that this was where he met my grandmother Loveday. She was born in Battersea in 1915 and had begun work at Mordern Wheel Drive at some point as a secretary. Here the two met and they remained together not getting married until they heard the great news of the end of the war. They met up with each other and a few others and made their way rather unoriginally towards Buckhingham Palace. They don't seem to have got particularly far but I'm guessing that they enjoyed themselves. Less than a month later they were married, as they remained until 1989 when my grandmother sadly passed away. My grandfather went on in his career to help with the development of the Thames Flood Barrier, inparticular the rocking arms ( the big yellow things sticking out of the top to you and me) After the Thames Barrier opened my Grandfather, with my grandmother as part of the audience, was introduced to the Queen he had struggled to see just under 40 years earlier on VE Day.

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