Took place in 1940 in Basingstoke – not far from Aldershot barracks where Fred was based at the time, and that fine town where Hilda’s family was centred.

Fred was the favourite chld and only son of Emily Jane. Fred went off to Canada which broke her heart, eventually returning and joining the army, posted to Aldershot. He married Hilda on 23rd March 1940. Emily Jane was again heart broken that she could not attend. Ivy and Edna, probably the only two children still at home, asked if she really wanted to go, and obviously the answer was “yes”, so they determined she would go. Special permission to travel was needed and obtained, and they set off on what I think was a daytime journey, and relatively uneventful.

After the service, and the celebration, they had to return during the evening and night. A train journey from Birmingham to Reading today, and change to Basingstoke is relatively easy – the alternative is Birmingham to Paddington, change to Waterloo and an hour or so later arrive at Basingstoke. Which route would they have taken, or could they have taken, bearing in mind damage to the railways through enemy bombing?

My Mother still shook at the memory of that journey when she recalled it years later. It was in the dark, troop trains had priority over other traffic, they were shunted into sidings for hours, with blackout rules, so that the only illumination was whatever lighting might have been allowed from moonlight, bombing flashes, and cigarette ends. They survived it, Emily Jane was forever grateful, dying in 1942.

Hazel wrote: “In the group line up at my mum & dad’s wedding I’m pretty sure that it’s mum’s brother Bill Warren (second on the left) – he used to do Charlie Chaplin and Arthur Askey impressions!  To the right of my dad is Ernie Candy and Ena (Georgina) Candy – mum’s sister, and on the extreme right Ron Candy (Ena’s stepson).”  

More on Fred, his travels, and his later life can be found here