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John Partridge
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John Partridge
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Clive |
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1945-1947 |
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After spending 1940 to 1943 at school in South Africa I returned to my home base which was Kampala, Uganda. After
attending Nairobi Primary for a couple of years I moved on to PoW in 1945 and spent a couple of wonderful years there.
I will not reiterate what it was like there because this has already been well documented by others. I must just
indulge and tell you that the after lunch nap was always preceeded by a game of from bed to bed rugby played with
someone elses socks. One marvellous dropkick broke a light fitting which I managed to repair (without the possibility
of a few cuts from Hatfield or one of his henchman). A subsequent visit to the school in 1972 showed the repair
still in place! My big mate was 'Daudi' Bond, brother of Roger, Nyani(Tony), and John (Gorilla), who died at the
tender age of 30 in Mombasa, and who I still mourne from time to time.
For some reason, still quite beyond me, my parents annouced during one holiday that I was to go "home" to school. And
so in 1947 I departed with much nashing, of still undrilled teeth, with the Snoxall brothers and Neil Fisher to
spend the next 3 years at Kings School, Canterbury. It wasn't all bad but I would rather have stayed on at the PoW
with my then mates, Lex Shelton, the Hooper brothers, 'Daudi' Bond and many others.
After school my father's attempt to get me to become a charted accountant failed miserably and I went to London
University and studied Chemistry. I worked for AECI(SA) ICI (UK) and then back to AECI. After that like so many of
us I ended up in industries which had nothing to do with my technical training. I retired in 2000 and since then
have been sittng on the proverbial deckchair watching my South African grandson playing cricket which he does pretty
well.
(Registered - 12th Sept 2009)
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If anyone wishes to contact John, please e-mail webmaster@oldcambrians.com
to obtain his contact details
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