Although Dennis was born in Queen Charlotte's hospital, London in 1913, he lived in Rayne all his life, first in New Road, then he moved to Longview on the Dunmow Road when he was 14.

Rayne School

Dennis was taught general subjects in Rayne School where the headmaster was Mr Yuill, whose wife also taught at the school.  There was a playing field where the boys used to play football, and when they kicked it into the adjacent apple orchard they would pick the apples when they went to retrieve the ball.  In the playground they would run about with hoops and tops to see who could keep them spinning the longest.  He went home for a mid-day meal, but when thirsty,would drink water from the school pump.

Braintree Intermediate School

Dennis sat an entrance exam at Rayne School at the age of 11 to get to the Intermediate School.  Here the children were taught individual subjects and were streamed.  In the first year both streams did the same subjects, but in the second year the A stream did more academic subjects, whereas the B stream did more practical subjects such as gardening.

On Saturdays Dennis used to do a delivery round for Mr Fuller, the butcher, One day he took some meat out on his delivery bike, fell off the bike and got all the meat deliveries muddled up.  He was paid 2/6d for his delivery work.  The boys used to go fishing in the pond at Gatewoods Farm and play cricket in Mrs Mortier's field.

Railway

Steam trains used to go along the railway line past their house in New Road.  During the General Strike the only trains allowed to operate were those with "FOOD ONLY" written on the side of the trucks.

After School

Dennis left school at 15 wanting to be a draughtsman, but as there was a slump and no work anywhere, he took a four year's apprenticeship as an upholsterer with Ralph Smith of Braintree.  He started working in the workshop from the first day - he was handed a ripping chisel and had to rip covers off a settee.  Later on he would go out in a van to people's houses to fit carpets and blinds etc.  If the house was local, he used to take all his tools in a handcart.

On Sundays he went regularly twice a day to Rayne Chapel where his father was caretaker.  The Sunday School treat for many years was the annual open-topped charabanc trip to Clacton; all the children congregated outside the Miss Blyth's house to await the charabanc and they used to sing all the way to Clacton/Walton or Maldon.  They all used to take sandwiches.

The Harvest Festival was a big event in the village, but there were no parties at Christmas.  Mr Dixon ran the Band of Hope which the children had to go to and learn to recite, which they had to do on special evenings.

World War II

At the age of 26, Ernest volunteered for the RAF - he did not want to go into the army like everyone else, so would not wait to be called up.  He went to the recruitment office in Colchester where he was told that there were no more vacancies in the RAF, but when he went back the following week he managed to get in by chance as he was the only one listed as a fabric worker.  He went to Cardington for two days, came back home to work for three months, then was posted to several bases in the UK, at the end of which he was posted to Ceylon for 18 months before being demobbed in 1945.

At that time Hurricane bombers were completely covered by a thin coat of fabric which he worked on, but as newer aircraft came into service which were covered in metal, he was transferred to safety equipment, so he worked on parachutes.

While in Ceylon he worked for Lord Mountbatten who lived in the C.O.'s bungalow which had no windows etc. because of the heat, just shutters which could drop down when the monsoon rains started.  They heard that Lady Mountbatten was going to come out to Ceylon and it was decided that she would have to have curtains at the windows, so Dennis was instructed to make them.  Having calculated how much fabric he would need, he was then told to fly to India to purchase it.  However, in the meantime the adjutant was instructed to fly to India and stay in the RAF unit there, so he bought all the fabric.  Apparently Dennis made a good job of the curtains which were very much admired (although he never did get to meet Lady Mountbatten !).