By 1954 my parents were not enjoying good health and they wanted to retire and move nearer to us. We decided to buy a large house between us and build into it a separate flat for my parents. This we did, taking two years to complete, and it proved to be a great blessing for all of us. I wrote an article about our project which was published in a national magazine and BBC researchers came across it. They invited us take part in a TV programme called ‘60,70,80’ to talk about the pros and cons of such an arrangement. We enjoyed the day at the BBC Television Centre at Shepherds Bush with Roy Hudd and Irene Thomas. The program went on air a few weeks later, and gave rise to much interest.

In 1956 my wartime colleague, a Danish Radio Officer named Viggo, had returned to his homeland and kept his promise to invite me and my family to his home in Copenhagen. It was our first ever holiday abroad and we had a wonderful time together. We travelled by sea from Harwich to Esbjerg and then across Demark by rail. It was a whole new experience for us, because our family holidays were normally spent under canvas in the U.K.

In 1960 our third and last child was born, another boy, Philip.

Now we bought a bigger car and the tent was replaced by a caravan, so our ‘camping’ became much more comfortable. We had also become more adventurous and took to touring on the continent. We not only began to explore France, we also went as far as Switzerland and then over the Alps to Italy. On another occasion we towed through France to the Pyrenees and on to Spain. We enjoyed most wonderful scenery and never once did we have any problems on the road, except for a burnt out clutch while later touring Scotland. Even then we were fortunate to breaking down outside a well equipped garage who were able to carry out the repair while we explored on foot the little town of Newton Stuart.