From East to West Around the World by John Symonds

This third and final volume of my memoirs covers a period of 14 years between 1957 and 1971, eight of which were mostly spent teaching overseas in Malaya and Ghana followed by almost five years teaching young officers and cadets at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.

It was a period during which we circumnavigated the world and saw at first hand two newly independent colonies struggle with the difficult challenges of democracy and nation- hood. In both these countries we were received with good will and affection and found the students to be hard-working, ambitious and with a thirst for knowledge. All this made teaching an enjoyable and satisfying experience. Again this period was to see the birth of our three children Helen, Andrew and Catherine and the beginning of their education. I also managed to have my first book published.

One big sadness of this time overseas was the death of my father at the early age of 61. This was to result in the sale of the family orchard in Over and its reversion to farmland, a trend that since the 1960's has become all too common so that today in Over one is no longer `surrounded by plum blossom' every Spring (see Volume I). The `times they were a' changin'. Again in this period Margaret suffered severe periods of ill health including several bouts of malaria in Ghana. Yet despite everything the plusses far outweighed the minuses. Our horizons had broadened, many new friends had been made and we had become citizens of the world beyond the bounds of Little England. Certainly I had no regrets at the decision to work overseas.

The England we which we returned in July 1965 was much changed from that we had left in 1957. The Conservative rule of Harold Macmillan and Lord Home had been replaced in 1964 by a Labour government headed by Harold Wilson promising the inaugurate industrial reform and the `white heat' of technology. Yet paradoxically before 1971 we were to experience growing Trade Union power and endless strikes and industrial unrest as Shop Stewards challenged all modernisation plans. The economy remained weak and under threat.

Nevertheless a New Age had dawned with the Swinging Sixties. It was the age of Pop Stars such as The Beatles, as well as Coronation Street and other television soap operas.

The discovery of the contraceptive pill revolutionised sexual behaviour. A series of new laws had changed social attitudes. A new Divorce Law made divorce commonplace, homosexuality was no longer a criminal offence and abortion was legalised. Theatre and film censorship had largely been abolished whilst the Lady Chatterley Trial showed that there were to be no barriers in book publishing. Capital punishment had been abolished and Betting Shops were now to be seen in every High Street.

Conscription had ended, yet the Cold War continued unabated and the Iron Curtain still divided Europe. The world was still a dangerous place and full of tensions. The Suez Crisis and the Hungarian Uprising just pre-dated our departure overseas. In 1962, whilst in Ghana, the Cuba Crisis nearly resulted in a world war. By 1965 when we returned home the Vietnam War was fast becoming a running sore and a major cause of confrontation and tensions in the Far East. All this, plus the new Hydrogen Bomb and rockets into Space, did not make for a settled world.

Yet in some ways we seemed to miss some of the effects of those changes, partly because we did not own a television set and partly due to absence abroad. Then we moved straight into a traditional Service environment at B.R.N.C. where the Royal Marines Band played on the parade ground during Sunday Church Parade, where Wrens did not go to sea and older standards of discipline and behaviour still prevailed. It was a place of stability amid the seething uncertainties of a changing country. Discipline was not a popular word in the 1960's, when universities were facing growing student unrest, but it was strangely refresh- ing to find high traditional standards being enforced at Dartmouth so very different from the relaxed atmosphere of the tropics.

Nevertheless by 1971, when this book ends, Britain was already light years away from the very insular straight-jacketed straight-laced world of my boyhood. Life of course evolves and changes in every generation but in the 1960's everything seemed to speed up. Respect for authority declined sharply as crime rates soared and vandalism became commonplace. Pressures on life became more intense. It became the age of the credit card, hypermarkets, round the world travel, high mortgage payments, universal car ownership in a country about to become criss-crossed by motorways, and mass university entrance. Not all these changes brought instant happiness though it was good to see the back of some of the old hypocrisies and Victorian shibboleths.

1971 was to see our final family move to Hampshire and a new teaching post at Churcher's College, Petersfield which was to continue till my retirement twenty years later. The wheel had gone full circle.

This is only the "Forward" to "From East to West Around the World", the full text with photos can be obtained direct from the author John Symonds at 144 Stakes Hill Road, Waterlooville, PO7 7BG. Price £5 + 50p package & posting.