195 What's in a Name?

I am a member of a Facebook group called “Lowestoft Football Teams and Memories”.  From the age of about 15 until I left Lowestoft to go to Durham University, I played for a team called Lowestoft Corinthians in the Lowestoft and District League and now, 60 years on, I occasionally see a reference to people whom I played with or against.  

Yesterday, a photo was posted of the 1969 Oulton Broad side that played in the final of the Suffolk Senior Cup and in it are four people I knew very well.

On the left of the front row is “W Churchill” and he was in my year at school.  If asked to guess what the “W” initial stands for, you might suggest William or perhaps Walter.

Of course, you would be wrong.  His name was Winston.  He was born just over a year after the end of the second world war and his parents were either incredibly patriotic or astoundingly unimaginative, naming him after our wartime leader.

I have one undying memory of W Churchill.  One day, when we were 11, Winnie, Roger Hill and I spent an afternoon in Oulton Broad swimming pool, where my friends were almost every day during the school summer holiday.  

The pool was adjacent to Everitt Park and to get from the pool to the park either involved a fairly long circuitous walk, or a strictly forbidden,10 second climb over a high wall.  If you were caught climbing over the wall, you could expect an aggressive interrogation and lecture from the tough and very belligerent Park Keeper.  That afternoon, the three of us climbed over the wall.

As soon as we landed, we were confronted by the Park Keeper and his equally unpleasant assistant.  We three small boys were herded into a corner formed by the pool wall and a shed.  The grilling began.  He started with me.

“What’s your name?”

“Terry Wilton”

“Yours?”

“Roger Hill”

“And what’s your name?”

“Winston Churchill.”

SLAP!

“Don’t take the piss out of me, son.”

The sound of Winnie’s face being slapped was echoing all around the park.

His parents had a lot to answer for.