Albert M Camichel

Research Notes

• Albert M Camichel Roger Camichel said in a letter to Georgina in 1998 that Bertie did not talk about his early days when the three boys lived with their mother at Peabody Buildings, Hammersmith, a block of flats bombed during the1939-1945 war. He mentioned the mantel piece over the fireplace stacked with his brother Will's medicines. Bertie remembered going on holiday and hurting his wrist which after 8 or 10 days was found to be broken. When 17 or 18 he cycled to Brighton and back in the day. He talked about George and how he drove a heavy truck loaded with sand and gravel down a hill. The brakes failed, but he finished up in the ditch, unhurt. Bertie's eyesight was bad and he had flat feet so during the war he served with a bofors anti-aircraft gun crew at Epping. He was slightly built and found that he and the three other crew members were so knackered after lifting the gun out of its shed every night that they hardly had strength left to load the gun. Bertie built a set of carriage wheels which quickly attached to the spread legs and enabled the crew to simply roll the gun out - he was clever in that way. Bertie loved ballroom dancing which is how he met Olwen who lived at North Weald. By the time they were married in 1940, London was being bombed every day so Bertie stayed in Essex, even though North Weald was itself heavily attacked, being a fighter sector station. Bertie grew to love the countryside and would not return to London. Shortly after the war Bertie entered into an unsuccessful market garden venture at Eype in Dorset. When this failed he returned to London and became the manager of a shop for the Electricity Board.⁴