Peter Goddard was a Withernsea lad whose parents owned the Alma Public House in Queen Street. A boy whose love of the sea meant he was often as not found on the beach with his pals. He attended the local school, and then took a job as a delivery boy with the local grocer, Cusson’s.

He and a number of his mates joined the Territorial Army in 1939, and after basic training in Worksop, set sail from France on New Year’s Day 1940, on the Devonshire. He writes on January 4th, “We had six ships in the convoy and two destroyers as escorts. The ship we were on was the Devonshire and it was her first trip. She had been made to order for troop carrying.”

Thirteen days later they arrived in Palestine, and the diary, (which they were discouraged from writing) tells of his first year. His role was that of driver, mostly on the lorry convoys in the early days, but later, as the designated driver for the Doctor.