I Sank The Bismarck Read Online Free

boy with the crown on his head would enter and recite,
'King George is my name, sword and pistol by my side, I hope
to win the game.'
    The first boy would answer, 'The game, sir, the game, sir, is
not within your power. I will slash you and slay you within
half an hour.' These two boys would then have a duel with toy
swords and the first boy would drop down as though dead, at
which the king would kneel down and say, 'Is there a doctor
in the town?' A small boy with a little attaché case would then
pop out from behind the door saying, 'My name is Doctor
Brown, the best little doctor in the town. A little to his nose
and a little to his bum, now rise up, jock, and sing a song.'
    It was an absurd little sketch, but we used to get showered
with pieces of cake and home-made toffees and fudge, and we
would pass from house to house performing the same sketch.
Even now I can recall the words perfectly.
    I also started to enjoyhorse riding, which did not go down
very well with my parents. My grandfather had been a keen
gambler and had lost a considerable sum of money over the
years on the horses. For understandable reasons, my father
didn't approve of gambling; he also took the view that anything
to do with horse racing or riding was dangerous and
would inevitably lead to ruin. However, I became fascinated
by the meetings of the local hunt, where I would turn up in
shorts, rugby jersey and running shoes, and try to keep up
with the hounds.
    Naturally I was told off by my father, and the school also
took a dim view of it. But I soon found that opening the odd
gate to allow some of the less adventurous riders through
would be rewarded with a sixpence and, as I became more
familiar, riders would encourage me to hang on to a stirrup to
help me along. Soon I started to learn to ride at the local
stables with the help of the stable boys. I enjoyed it and found
that I was good at it. Whether it was my years of running
around with just my dog Wiggy for company I don't know,
but I felt easy with horses and they felt easy with me. Even
now, as I look out of my window and observe some of the
pupils at a riding school in the nearby fields, I have to resist
the urge to rush out and tell them to relax, loosen the reins a
little and encourage the horse to feel that he is working with
them, not against them.
    I got on very well with one particular horse called Answer
Me, who was owned by a local vet, a grand character. He
would give me a few shillings for exercising his horse every
Saturday, and when he entered it into a race near Hawick I
decided to put some of my money on it. It came in first and I
picked up my winnings. There was, however, hell to pay with
my father, who saw all his grim forebodings coming to pass.
He flatly told me never to go back to the stables. I disobeyed
him, of course, I am sorry to say, but didn't gamble any more.
It was the horses and the riding that I was interested in and,
like rugby, it is something that I continued to enjoy throughout
my life and encouraged my children to take up. So all the
things that I enjoyed as a youngster stayed with me as I grew
up, and made me what I was to become.
    The major event of my childhood took place in Kelso when
I was about ten years old. It didn't last very long, but I think
it had a profound effect on me – I honestly think it changed
my life completely, although it took some time for its true
impact to be felt. An aeroplane appeared in the sky over Kelso
one day, manoeuvring low over the town a few times to
attract attention and then flying off to land at the point-to-point
course. It was an Avro 504, a very common and popular
aircraft at the time, a biplane with two open cockpits,
powered by a single rotary engine at the front and a big
curved skid, like a bent ski, mounted between the landing
wheels as a substitute for a nose wheel. Several thousand of
these planes had been built during theFirst World War and
they had served as fighters, with a machine gun mounted
above the top