In the introduction to my earlier stories about my time as a member of the Friends Ambulance Unit and with the Free French I have explained that I wrote them to answer questions raised by my old papers, citations and other memorabilia which had come to light on my eightieth birthday. Several readers have asked how it was that I became involved with the Friends Ambulance Unit in the first place.
These chapters explain how that came about and describe my part in the first overseas mission undertaken by the Unit in World War II. Inevitably it involves a small element of autobiography but I will make that part short.
I was the second son of Quaker parents (the word "Quaker" and the phrase "Society of Friends" are synonymous) and I and my elder and younger brothers all went to the Quaker boarding school in Yorkshire called "Ackworth". I went at the age of eight years and stayed there until I was eighteen. Unlike my two brothers I was extremely happy there largely due to the fact that I was good at cricket and football. It was the sort of school where the Captaincy of the Soccer 1st X1 carried infinitely more prestige than the position of head boy or head prefect. Although I left school with ample qualification for University I was offered a job with Midland Bank in which my father was a branch manager. It was a boring and meagrely paid position but it enabled me to continue to play football and cricket.
In fact my life continued very much as before with the added interest of pursuing girls. That activity took third place far behind my interest in sports. In fact it was a side of life in which I was both very ignorant and naīve. Ten years growing up in a single-sex public school is not an ideal discipline for producing aspiring "Lotharios"!