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We get our first leave if we pass part 1 of our course in five weeks’ time. I hope
to visit Montreal and Toronto. When we first arrived I managed half a day in
New York. It was like a dream to see the lights again. I also saw the
Manhattan Skyline and the Statue of Liberty.

I am on a nine-months’ course out here, but when you pass out it is only luck
if you go back to England. I have met a chap in the Brentwood CC so we have
plenty in common to chat about and I can also pass on the DLN to him.

Here’s wishing everyone a happy New Year.”

By March 1944 George had passed Part I of the course; he then spent seven
days’ leave in Montreal (where, “boy was it cold!”) before completing the
course, which included flying; however, by May he was complaining about the
heat and mosquitoes! Whilst still in Canada he was able to do some cycling
on “4th-class roads”. On his return to England, George visited both
Shropshire and the Isle of Man for more training prior to arriving in the
Orkneys to join an aircraft carrier, which was involved in bombing operations
on German targets in Norway and laying mines in the fjords.

As the war in Europe came to a close, George was posted to Ceylon (Sri
Lanka) to join a carrier for the assault on Japan but, as a result of the
Japanese capitulation, his war came to an end and by October 1945 he was
back home and was demobbed at the end of that month; he celebrated with
his two pals, Ron Hoare and Reg Howard, with a few beers and at the same
time booked in for the club dinner and Newnham weekend, and also paid his
subs for 1946!

1946 also saw George sending his sprints to Barnards to be trued up to
race for the first time in years in the Southern Counties ‘25’. It was then
back to pre-war days riding in both open and club time trials for the next
four years. During this period he also made a resounding success of the
many jobs he had taken on, from measuring courses, organizing the
marshalling of both club and open events and sitting on various committees,

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