Army Life

Alan in his British Army Uniform, 1947

Having previously volunteered for the Army [while still at the university] and having been accepted on condition that I pass the necessary selection process and training for a commission, I reported for Basic Training before I even know of the results of my final university exams.

I did well in the Army, the youngest captain in the division, who was being wined and dined by the “brass” in their attempts to recruit me on a permanent basis.

I returned to England from the continent in 1947, obtaining an engineering job, that...entailed a two-year obligation to work all over England, but be based in Manchester. The post-war years were in many ways harder in England than the war years and I felt totally out of place and resolved to emigrate somewhere. I considered Austria briefly, but decided on Canada, but only as a stepping stone to the United States. I went to Canada in 1949, married there in 1951 and emigrated to the U.S. in 1953, settling in the San Francisco Bay area.