Wonderful Shoes!

A Memory of Sherrington.

My Father Robert Ruddle was born in 1920 and was raised in Sherrington. He lived in the dairy near the river but this is now a private house, but later moved to Yew Tree Cottage which is still there! Times were hard back then and my Father walked to school in Codford in bare feet!!! The villagers gathered together and raised the money to buy him a pair of shoes!! In 1938 he lied about his age and joined the 4th Wiltshire Regt and when war broke out he cycled to Bristol from Sherrington to join the RAF but was turned down. Sir Sidney Herbert, the local landowner and M.P raised the matter in the House of Commons, complaining about how my Father had been turned down, but to no avail, so later my father joined the Royal Tank Corp(as it was known then) .My Father, his two best friends Joe and Burt Imber and a few more young men from Sherrington went off to war. On their return, the villagers presented each man with a certificate thanking them for fighting whilst they were all safe at home, and along with the certificate, each man received a £5note, which in 1945, was a lot of money. My darling Dad passed away on the 29th April 2014 and at the age of 94 was still working and he still had the certificate given to him, from the villagers of Sherrington.
Doreen Holmes.


Added 30 December 2014

#337161

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