General Notes

[blott.ged]

William George John Flood (Bill) was born in Plymouth, Devon 3 Aug 1918 and was the son of William Flood and Ida Louise Jennings. For a large part of his childhood he lived in Looe  Street, near the Plymouth Barbican where his paternal grandmother had a general store. He, like his Father's family, was very fond of boats and the family were often out in his Father's motor boat fishing or shrimping. Bill served an apprenticeship and became a shipwright. The only other child in the family was Derek who was eight years younger than Bill and he only lived for a year and a half. Bill's Mother died in 1938 shortly before he was twenty.  Two years after that the second world war started and Bill was called up with the militia. He was reported missing and quite some time passed before news came that he was a prisoner of war. He spent the rest of the war in the German camp Stalag V111B. While he was away his Father died.  Bill has written an account of some of his experiences as a prisoner. One particularly hard time was the forced march near the end of the war when the allies were closing in. They had to eat whatever they could find, sometimes rotten apples. After his return in 1945 he worked at his trade in the Devonport Dockyard and then met Rosemary Packer and they were married at St Marychurch, Torquay (Rosemary's home) 12 Jun 1948. They made their home in Plymouth. They had no children. Rosemary died of cancer in June 1985. Bill had a stroke about 1990 and had to go into a nursing home, where he stayed until his death 18 Dec 1993.
NOTE. When he was in his late sixties Bill had to have an operatiion and an Xray showed that he still had a bullet in him from when he was wounded in the war. He did not know it was there. A photograph of the Xray was taken for family files. The bullet was never removed. One wonders what happened to it when he was cremated?