My Father's Pubs

My father loved a good pub, by which he meant an establishment which was fairly quiet, had atmosphere, good bitter, good company, and the right sort of landlord

The pub shown here is the Cinque Ports in Old Town Hastings. It was small, didn't serve food, tended to discourage the sort of 'day tripper' who came to Hastings, and had young, very friendly landlords - sadly, I have forgotten their names.

From the time he retired to England in 1961, my father went down to the pub for a couple of beers almost every day, so he was the sort of customer worth cultivating - look carefully at the picture and you will see a cake with a candle on it, probably to celebrate a birthday. He was also very good company, so in many of the pubs he frequented a small group of regulars would form around him.

Along with the Cinque Ports, this was one of his favourites, the Ferry Inn on the Isle of Oxney near Appledore in Kent. The landlord was George and, although the pub never seemed to have many customers, my father enjoyed George's company so visited it fairly often.

It was where I found him on the day I arrived back in England from a six-week expedition into North Africa in 1964. I recall walking in through the front door of the pub and finding the bar empty except for George and my father. They turned to look at me and then turned away - and my father made some sort of derogatory comment.

I think they thought my companion, Michael, and I were gypsies or vagabonds. They certainly didn't recognise me, which isn't surprising as, during the trip, I had grown a beard. Once my father acknowledged his son we joined them for a beer, and an exceptionally good one it was.