Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

of Edinburgh. The lecture I gave, on elephant seals, went off very well and we
enjoyed the dinner at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, where we met some
interesting people, including Michael Swann (later FRS) whom I had known at
Cambridge and were treated to a very impressive display of mental arithmetic
by a famous guest. We stayed in a large stone house in old Edinburgh, as the
guests of the Ritchies (he was the Society's Secretary). With snow lying outside
it was bitterIy cold in the vast bedroom, with a four-poster bed in one corner
and a tiny open fire in the other. After a couple of days we went to see my
parents in Whitley Bay, before returning to Haslemere.
Meanwhile we had been looking around for a house to buy. We didn't find
anything suitable, but came across a site in Braemar Close, up a hill from the
town of Godalming. It was only a few miles from the NIO at Wormley, where I
was working. With help from Maureen's parents and Freda Woods, and a
mortgage, we were able to buy the plot and build a house on it. It was in the
old gardens of a former large estate now gone wild. There were already about
ten houses in the Close and this was the last one left unsold and very attractive.
Our longish back garden had mature apple trees and was in the shape of a
fishtail, opening out to the view, overlooked nearby trees and hilly, wooded
countryside – with not another house in sight. The front garden was tiny. So in
June 1955, we moved in to "Arrabida", 13 Braemar Close, Godalming, named
after our favourite beach in Portugal. Or should I say, Maureen did, for I
happened at the time to be working in Norway at a whaling station for a
month! (see chapter XX). Maureen's school friend, Gill Garnett, visited her at
that time and they used her car to drive Maureen and luggage over from
Haslemere to the new house, after a removal van had collected the furniture
and other contents. Gill stayed with her a few days and helped to polish the
wooden floors – at night, as it was too hot to do it during the day and the
ground was too hard to dig or plant anything.
In October of that year, her good Norwegian friend from Portugal, Gerd
Thingvold, married a British naval officer, Commander Richard Franklin, in St.
Pauls church, Estoril. A few days later, they came to stay the night with us in
Godalming; we went out, leaving them a nice dinner to eat alone – as it was
their honeymoon! Maureen's family came to stay for Christmas. Her parents
Bonnie and Len were over from Portugal and Sheelagh came down from
London, where she was studying to be a nurse at Bart's Hospital. Then on
New Year's Eve, Bonnie and Len, Maureen and I and some neighbours in the
Close, Charles and Ann Holding, went off to celebrate at the Sally Lunn
Restaurant near Hindhead, on top of the hill.
In the summer of 1957, Richard Anthony, was born on 9 July, a very
beautiful 8 1b baby. The following year we drove to Portugal, with Richard in
the back of our first car, a green Commer Cob van. We camped and stayed in
pousadas and paradors en route to Estoril but on returning, we left Richard
with Bonnie and Len, who were coming to England by ship and brought him
with them. We drove back via the Dordogne and saw the real caves of Lascaux
which were beautiful and most impressive. The prehistoric paintings were so
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