ABSTRACT
Gerald came from a well-educated, white-collar background, with a strong naval tradition.
Mum had been a teacher and dad was a civil servant. A lot of my relatives had been in the Royal Navy or been connected with the Royal Navy. My maternal grandfather had been a Royal Naval Architect: Royal Naval Construction Officer-very interested in maths-hence perhaps in the genes there’s an interest in maths. I had one sister. She was in the civil service. But-how shall I put it?—it was a naval town, Royal Naval town. Many people were interested in the forces: the Army and the Navy. The Air Force hadn’t really built up into anything. But it was at the time of disarmament. And I would like to have been a school master in the Royal Navy as my ancestors were so connected with the Navy but at that particular time, they were throwing Naval school masters-they were throwing them out and many were re-training for civilian work.
