My answer shook her rigid, but she accepted it with good grace as she respected me.
The rest of the two years at University were just a sheer delight. Memories of driving in Frosty Februaries in Tony’s 1938 Morris 7 tourer in the bright sunshine, the elm trees fern-like, black silhouettes etched on the downland skyline. A warm cosy pub for lunch, formal black tie dances in the evening with Jill ferried on the back of my motorbike, side saddle in her long evening dress. The wonderful songs and music from shows such as “Kiss me Kate” and “South Pacific”. The latter I especially enjoyed having passed by the beautiful Pacific Islands, and been amongst the lads of the US Navy, and had seen and felt the full force of their vitality , power and ability to get things done. Suddenly seeing Mary Martin , the Seabees and the rest on stage in London, was and always has been pure nostalgia for me. Spring, was walking through bluebell woods in May, the young larch trees in their soft new ferny foliage. Summer was trips to the coast, long stays at Orchard House where our courting would progress in a whirlwind through the vacation, with the approving eye of Mother. We sailed Helen’s Sharpie off Newhaven, walked the woods and just lazed and enjoyed each others company. I had a job on the small farm opposite Mother’s where the farmer Mr Ellen who was an ex-fighter pilot was sick, and I had to do the milking as well as get in the harvest which was oats cut with a baler, stooked and had to be brought in. I took one afternoon off to go to see the Farnborough Air Show with Helen. The central attraction was seeing Group Captain Derry who had been in the same RAF Fighter Wing as Ellen with their wives close friends, break the sound barrier in the latest De Havilland 110. We stood in the crowd as he flew anticlockwise round the Airfield, and then went supersonic on the other side of the runway. There was a sharp bang as the shock wave swept over us and then as the plane flew on its side banking, it seemed that the sheet metal cladding was just peeling off in pieces. The next thing was an explosion right in front of our eyes and from the other side of the runway a jet engine flew off passing over our heads and landed in the crowd on a slight knoll above us. As it hit the ground the engine bounced about three or four times through the crowds of people, killing about 30 poor souls. But for the grace of God we could just as easily have been the victims. Poor Derry was killed as well, a pioneer test pilot probing the frontiers of aviation, and Ellen my farmer had lost his close friend. The following year ended our final summer term at Reading University. Life was much the same ,the usual run of parties, dances etc. Increasingly I was evermore at Jill’s house, in the summer enjoying wonderful meals cooked by her with vegetables grown by George in their walled garden, the walls of which had peaches and apricots trained up it. I often used to go with Ma to help her feed her newly acquired pony ‘Bubbles’. She had come into a bit of money and yearned to have a pony for the children to ride as she had ridden in Hyde Park’s Rotten Row as a child. Little did I appreciate then what a good eye she had for a horse, and how in the coming years she was to create for herself a national career starting with that one pony in a field around the corner!
There just before we were to split and go our various ways, I finally asked Jill if she would marry me and join me in the lonely and isolated life of a tea planter on a tropical isle. It was a big question in those days, before mass air travel. Ceylon was three weeks, and very expensive journey away. It was another world, totally different in most respects from the life of a suburban girl with pavements, metalled roads, the big stores a short bus ride away. She hestitated and said, “ Well I will have to think about it”.
In my usual quick rush, I retorted “ Well hurry up then. I cannot stand dawdlers and people who wont make up their mind; either you want to or you dont. Just make up your mind”.
So in that rather pragmatic way we partially agreed, to get engaged, and to get married in about a years time once I had settled in to the new career. To start with I would be “creeping” or learning my work with another planter, then I would have to work my way in as a junior assistant and take charge of a division. Jill too had a further year at University as she was running a year behind having failed her first years course. The idea of Jill coming out to Ceylon was not received well by Ma who felt that she was suddenly about to lose her favourite daughter to some one in a far off land. However Jill my Honey said that she would handle the situation slowly and persuade her Mother and so we said our final goodbyes, kissed and then at the beginning of September it was the start of another new adventure.
