Tag: South Devon

Private Alfred Gregory Wyles

UK: My Grandfather’s WWII PTSD – the Cost of Our Freedom! (9.5.2026)

He trained alongside the Glider-Landed Troops – trained to sit 30 to a wooden glider (a platoon) and crash-land on a military target before deploying (if surviving). Alfred either landed on Sword Beach in the first landing-boats and fought his way (ten-miles) in-land to relieve the British Glider Troops landed in Caen – or he landed in Caen with the Glider Troops and tried to hold the area until relieved by the British Army. Either way (we are not exactly sure – but must assume the former) the German resistance was so intense the first-wave Units were decimated and many of the early objectives were not achieved. My grandfather, when talking about his experiences many years later, described how he had to kill many people as he moved through the French and German countryside. He would fight his way to Hamburg before he was granted rest and leave. It was this killing that negatively affected him psychologically. Indeed, there hundreds of thousands of men in the UK who had to re-integrate into British society and pretend nothing had happened.

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Brixham Down Wind Mill Road!

Brixham: A Photographic Strole Down “Windmill Hill”! (3.4.2026)

Gee had to park the car at the top of Wind Mill Hill – as that was the only place a parking-space was available not patrolled by militant locals who still seem to think WWII is ongoing. I jest – but one or two were a little bit prickly – commenting about “Townies” and “City-Dwellers” with “their big cars”! And so on. Still, at the end of the day, we are the visitors and we will be gone tomorrow. After carrying-out my duty – and visiting my various family relatives – I thought it would be a good idea to make a record of the journey down the hill from the parking-spot to the rented house. The view was quite beautiful and I hope I have captured our journey on foot down a steep Brixham hill – although we could not actually find a “Wind Mill”! Come to think of it – we are supposed to be near the Brixham Army Cadet Centre – but we never found this place either!

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Half-Penny from 1966

Brixham: Coins in the Wall! (2.4.2026)

Administrative matters aside – I notice the above “interior” wall looks as if it used to be an “external” wall – as it looks weather-beaten and worn. Furthermore, in the UK, builders often leave a coin featuring the year any renovations were carried-out as a form of “good luck”. Usually, we find these coins under floor-boards, carpets, and lino, etc. Sometimes they are lodged between wooden joints or under various structures. In this wall, the coins seem cemented on the outside of the wall. There is a 1966 half-penny, and a 1960 three-penny. When I was first at school in the early 1970s – these coins were still in use. The old half-penny would today possess the buying power of £5 – whilst the three-penny bit could buy about £30s worth of goods. This was before the UK joined the EEC (1.1.1973). Prior to this, a British pound was comprised of 240 pence – afterwards it was deliberately devalued to just “100” pence. What a disgrace all this was!

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Ancient Seafaring Scaffolding from the Time of Henry VIII!

Brixham: “What’s this Scaffolding? It’s a Feature”! (29.3.2029)

Of course, as The Beatles once reminded us “Nothing is Real!” – in the hyper-extension of capitalism that is “the holiday”. It is a time of no work (unless you are on a working holiday – we’ve all been there – labour in exchange for ten-minutes on a beach), no struggle, and comfortable living – but this week or two takes around 50-weeks of hard graft just to raise the deposit. When I was in Spain, I once witnessed an Englishman arrive with his case at our holiday resort – returning after just two or three weeks after his last visit. His previous sojourn had been “magical” in his own words and he had gone home, re-mortgaged the house, and rebooked in exactly the same Benidorm hotel! The problem was that no one else he had stayed with had rebooked – and none of the staff could remember who he was!

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Dad - Torbay Hospital 1.2.2026

Paignton: Hadleigh Court Care Home – Care Quality Commission [CQC] Latest Report – “Requires Improvement” – Do Not Send Your Relatives Here! (7.2.2026)

The now “all White” staff took exception to my father’s daughter in law being “Chinese” – and his two grand daughters being of mixed heritage. As old and disabled as he is, my father would get up, wash, get dressed, and order a taxi to my mother’s home to see us (here, my father expressed the will-power that saw his father land in the first wave of British troops on D-Day – and survive) – as he did not want Gee, Mei-An, or Kai-Lin subjected to the normalised racism that was now rampant in the home. As my father stood his corner – a semi-paralysed man in his 80s – the Manager of Hadleigh Court issued him with an Eviction Order – laughably asserting that he is “racist”! Recently, on a routine hospital check – the Manager of Hadleigh court refused for my father to be allowed back into the home. Hadleigh Court was assisted in this by the equally corrupt Torbay Social Services – so nothing new there. As a result of all this, my father is in Torbay Hospital with Social Services refusing to let other care homes take him – as we are a family “prone to complaining”! And that is where things stand. South Devon is a fairly backward area and so the impoverished masses are easily controlled by a few rich people and their Authoritarian lackeys. They do not like the workers standing up to their oppression – but standing up to oppression is what we do best. Do not allow your loved one to be plunged into the dungeon that is Hadleigh Court under this current Manager and staff regime. Hit the capitalists were it hurts – in the purse. It is the only pain that matters to them – as they do not care about the very real pain that their greed and racism inflicts on us. Still, we do not want sympathy from others – as we are all in the same boat – and we certainly do not want your money. We, instead, express our solidarity to every worker who is currently suffering oppression and violence at the hands of the capitalists – an oppression that has not been reduced under the rule of a right-wing Labour government. My mother – Diane Wyles – who is in her late 70s, is bravely fighting a rear-guard action against the corruption of the UK Authorities. Whave each other – tha is all that matters!

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A Saturday Morning Trip to the Honey-Shop!

The Galmpton “Honour System” – Walking to the Honey-Shop on a Saturday Morning! (30.8.2025)

Having stayed in Galampton a number of times now – my parent’s house is full of various medical paraphernalia – we noticed a sign (one of many) outside a beautiful brick-work #(chocolate-box) cottage – advertising local honey. Although this sign is a permanent fixture, we were never quite sure if the honey is available all year round – and we did not want to bother the owners. I could just imagine a startled villager as their sedate and isolated cottage is over-ran by a loud South London family – and their two-dogs!

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