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Was ever a boy misnamed! Dickie was never a Cecil!
I knew him since I was 11 and he was 15, both of us being pupils at the old Wallingford Grammar School. We were together in the after-school boxing class. Our paths did not cross for some years after school as he joined the family business - Reynolds & Johnstone, Chemists and Wine and Spirit Merchants, whilst I went away to work. Before the war Dickie enjoyed his passion for sport: football for Wallingfords Swifts, hockey and cricket for town clubs, as well as cricket for Berkshire. He joined the T.A. (4th Royal Berks) with several of his friends and in January 1940 they went to France. In May 1940 they were in the front line against the German assault. The regiment was decimated, Dickie was shot in the head, taken prisoner and hospitalised. He was totally paralysed down his left side for some time and was left with a permanent limp. In September 1943 he was part of a mutual repatriation scheme, being unfit for further service. He rejoined the family business and, besides looking after the wine and spirit side, he started a very successful agro-chemical business. He married Betty (an ex-WAAF) in 1946 and carried on working until he was forced to retire in 1966 as the result of a stroke. They came to Brightwell originally in 1966, went away from 1972 till 1978, came back to the village, and have lived here ever since. We resumed our friendship in 1980. He and I did a lot of work at St Agatha’s, becoming known as “Hinge and Bracket”. Latterly he suffered from diabetes and memory loss. To live through what he did and survive until he was 89 was the mark of a remarkable man. Another link with the past has gone.
Eric Green
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