Tag Archives: Rod Corbett

Rod Corbett: WWII PoWs 1940s

Audrey King 1940s

Audrey King, Rod Corbett’s mother 1940s


One of my earliest memories of Yarmouth was going with my mother down the High Street, and seeing the German P.O.Ws walking down the High Street.  I guess it must have been at the end of the war or just after, but they had the diamonds on their clothes and typical German field caps.

Another memory that really sticks with me; we had been given a lift, my mother was taking me to Newport. Transport was very meagre in those days, and we’d got a lift with a friend of the family in a coal truck, in the front.  And this coal truck used to deliver – I guess they picked the coal up from Yarmouth from the quay – delivering to the Hamstead POW camp – this sticks in my mind.  We drove into the camp through the gates, and at that point, when the lorry got in the camp it broke down.

I remember the lid of a vehicle up, and a huge host of German soldiers gathering around. One young soldier,-  even to me as a small child, he seemed young,-  held a kitten up at the window of this truck, showing me this kitten.  Now as I’ve got older I realise the vehicle wasn’t so interesting, but my mother was. She was quite a looker with red hair, and I think it was the excuse to see a lady.  I have no idea how we got out of that situation, but that incident just sticks with me. Rod Corbett

Rodney Corbett: Services, Fire Brigade 1950s

Fire Brigade

Fire Brigade 1950s

Now my Uncle Ted as a young man was the ‘leader of the band’ of mostly builders who used to run with this handcart if anywhere was on fire. The handcart was kept in the Town Hall; they didn’t even have a horse. It must have been a very slow turn-out – to go round gathering the men in to run with the handcart. The handcart brigade would deal with anything round the town.

Just before the war they decided that Yarmouth would have to have an Auxiliary Fire Service team and Ted got ousted because it was all made up of Bucketts.  Ted went off in a fit of pique and joined the Home Guard. In the war it became National Fire Service from Auxiliary, and after the war they were put back to the local Councils and then became the Isle of Wight Fire Service.  When I joined, the original Fire Chief for the Island, Sullivan, was still there and how many Chiefs did I see? – dozens. Rod Corbett b 1943

Fire Brigade in action

Fire Brigade in action

 

Rod Corbett: Free Time 1950s

An old lady called Kizzy Butler, who lived at the house that juts out into the Rec. had died, and the Jackman family bought it. She didn’t seem to have had any family so all her stuff was turned out. She had a big collection of stuffed birds all under glass Victorian domes. Nobody wanted things like that then, they were too unfashionable, so they were just thrown out.  A group of us boys, aged about 8 or 9 went and rescued these birds – there were lots of penguins and Arctic birds, and we put them up in the trees in the lane, which must have made people look twice. Eventually when we got bored, we shot the old birds down.

Rod Corbett b 1943

Rod Corbett: A short first day at school

My first day at school didn’t last very long. There was an old Nissen hut in the playground, probably left over from where the Army had had a gun on the refuse tip next door. There was a table in it, so I climbed on with another boy who was starting school with me. I gave him a shove and knocked him off, and he howled – he was always a bit of a ‘boohoo’. Anyway, I thought, ‘I’d better not stay here’, so I ran home to Gran ( my great grandmother who lived in Field Cottages).
Rod Corbett b 1943