IN CIVVY STREET

I found lodgings with Mrs Rowbottom who was the mother of Bill Owen who played Compo in the BBC series “Last of the Summer Wine” and she only charged me £1 per week rent.

Olive and Egbert's wedding photograph

Olive Wooster and I were married in Ealing on 24^th May 1958 and we rented part of a bungalow, but some time later we had to leave because the landlord did not want a baby in the house.

Our son, Lynden Christopher, was born on 11^th February 1959 and it was almost impossible to rent or buy property and so we bought a mobile home for the boys to play in and lived in that for about 4 years.  That was in Langley, Buckinghamshire.  Life was not easy and money was very short especially after we had another son in the caravan. Russell Melvin was born on 6^th June 1960.

Brother Ted and his wife, Gretha,

Holding Egbert's son Christopher

on the bridge in Gouda

Edward Gerard Hughes - my brother Ted

We managed to buy a town house in Ashford, Middlesex and lived there for about four years.  It was a nice, happy little house and had a lovely small garden.  However, Olive wanted a move so we moved to Wraysbury, a little village by the Thames, close to Windsor.  This was a detached house with a very big garden.  Meanwhile, I had moved from BEA to KLM, the Royal Dutch Airline, where I became a passenger duty officer.  This was a hard and difficult position and very stressful and was responsible for my early retirement at the age of 55.

Before that Olive became an Akela with the Wraysbury cub scouts and I became the group scout leader and both of the boys followed us through the scouting movement.  We had great fun from 1970-1980 and went camping in Wales, the Quantock Hills and many other places.  We met the Queen on several occasions.

After we left the scouting movement, Olive had a brain operation and was never the same person again.  When I retired, in 1981, we moved to a tied cottage in Chereton near Alesford and not far from Winchester.  I looked after an estate belonging to the Garnet-Orme family and spent many hours roaming through the Hampshire countryside, loving all the work on the estate.

I only had to work 8 hours a week so I took another job with Hampshire County Council, silk screen printing and engraving wooden signposts.  After 18 months or so Olives health took a turn for the worse and we moved to a bungalow in Headley, near Bordon, Hampshire. 

There I became the community transport co-ordinator and development officer for the Society of St Vincent de Paul charity, providing transport for the frail and disabled and for children with special needs.  It was supposed to be for six months but I carried on for seven years.  I raised a lot of money for the purchase of new vehicles and assisted the WRVS with the set up some 7 day centres and lunch club.  I had about ten volunteer drivers, mostly ex-service men and women who worked their socks off for a mere 7/6 (37⅟₂p) expenses per shift – without them, the system would not have worked.  They took people to London theatres, butterfly farms, shire horse centres, the seaside and even to Lourdes and Rome.

The service became so popular that the County Council took it over and it then became East Hampshire Community Transport.  I retired from that when I was 65 but the work is still being carried on by Social Services as a worthwhile project.

Olive had died in 1990 so after I retired, I sold the bungalow and bought an apartment in the Algarve in Portugal.  It had a large balcony overlooking the Atlantic and it was a wonderful life.  I met Jeane out there and we returned to the UK as the heat and the 39 steps to the apartment were getting to be a bit too much. 

Egbert and Jeane, Wedding Day, 2nd October 1995

We married in Lowestoft on 2^nd October 1995 and eventually moved to Oulton Broad.  I had a stroke in 1999 and lost the use of the left side of my body and had to be looked after by Jeane until I was able to walk and move my arm a little.  Sadly Jeane had a stroke in 2008 and became unable to walk, read or write and it became my turn to look after her. 

Unfortunately Jeane died on 4^th January 2013  and I have had health problems of my own but I am still able to get about a bit and visit my brother Ted in Holland.  All being well, I will be back over there at Christmas this year (2014).  It’s a wonderful life.

Letter of thanks from the Dutch Ministry of Defence

explaining that non-Dutch personnel could not receive 

Dutch medals for wartime service in their former Colonies

Egbert actually served in the home country!

Egbert's father, mother, older sister Mary 

and older brother, John - taken about 1919