30

Jim shivered from the cold wind as well as in the anticipation of seeing home and Peggy again within a matter of hours. He felt excited and strangely nervous about being thrust back into civilian life, for although Peggy and the rest of his family had written regularly and sent lots of photographs, he knew it would take time to settle down, get used to a slower pace, and reacquaint himself with his wife and children.

As in his brief First World War participation, his time in the army had been structured and tightly regulated, with there always being somewhere to go or something to do, and he’d become used to living in a rough, tough male environment until he’d been sent to Singapore. And that had been quite an eye-opener, for it had proved to him that his Peggy was not the only woman who’d spread her wings during the war and found independence in doing a fulfilling job outside the home.

Jim knew that his experiences during the Burma Campaign and in the aftermath of the Japanese surrender had changed him irrevocably. He was more sober and thoughtful, less likely to return to the ducking and diving of his youthful days, but more ambitious to forge a good future in which he too would be fulfilled. What that future might hold was as yet unknown, but he meant to grasp it with both hands, and be the man Peggy deserved.

He stood on the deck of the Empress Aurelia bundled up in his army greatcoat as the dawn mist swirled around him and the ghostly outline of Portsmouth Harbour began to slowly emerge and take shape. The Empress Aurelia had once been a cruise liner, but it had been commandeered during the war and stripped of all its luxuries and refinements to be used as a troopship. It carried not only the remaining troops of SEAC, but the last few returning prisoners of the Japanese who’d finally been deemed fit enough to be repatriated. These men stood alongside him, eagerly waiting for the ship to dock, and searching the quayside for sight of any loved ones who might have come to meet them.

Jim knew Peggy wouldn’t be there, but waiting for him at home, no doubt as excited as he now their long separation was finally at an end. He watched the ship edge into its berth, heard the shouts of the sailors calling to their counterparts on the dock, and then the rattling grind of the chain as the anchor plunged into the murky water.

He peered through the mist, frustratingly unable to see much at all, then picked up his heavy kitbag and slung its straps over his shoulder before hefting up the equally heavy holdall. There were several other bags in the hold which would be sent on by rail, and Peggy should have received the numerous parcels he’d posted before he’d left Singapore.

As the troops and POWs had now been officially demobilised there was to be no further hanging about. Jim joined the long queue waiting to disembark, bitterly disappointed there was no quayside welcoming party, no flags or military band – just a handful of nervous relatives, some disinterested dock workers and a couple of nurses to watch them step onto English soil again.