Vicky Meets… Don Stoner, Chichester resident

The first or two ‘Vicky Meets’ with nonagenarian Don, the second instalment appears next week.

Will you tell me about your early life?

I was born in Kingsham Avenue, Chichester, in 1933, but my family’s local roots go further back.

My Grandfather was a tenant farmer at Mill Farm, which is where the Inglenook restaurant at Pagham stands today.

He’d come from Balcombe to work on the railway and he took over the Lion House pub. He was the last publican there when it was still just an ale house.

He met Miss Williams, who lived at Mill Farm, and married her.

He was offered Mill Farm for £3,000 in in 1929, but he turned it down.

My Dad and Uncle tried hard to persuade him, but he wouldn’t.

That was a tremendous amount of money in those days.

I lived my early life in Pagham and went to Sefter School.

It was wartime, so if the air raid siren went off while we were at school we would put on our coats and the teacher would march us down the road to cover ourselves in leaves and lie quietly in the ditch.

We watched the dog fights going on above us and the bombs falling out at sea.

We were never frightened – it was just part of growing up.

At home my dad built a shelter that I hated. It was dark and damp and horrid.

Later, we had an Anderson shelter. Sometimes we would hear the Lysander planes going off.

I remember VE Day and eating my first ever banana.

Later, I went to Westloats School in Bognor.

I was a prefect and Head Boy. I cycled to school then, but when I was at Sefter School we walked there, whatever the weather. I was also a paperboy, delivering the papers before school.

Did you play a lot of sport?

Nyetimber Youth Club was where I started playing table tennis. I have played a lot of table tennis over the years.

I also played cricket. I met my wife Eileen at Pagham Cricket Club. I played for Pagham for 46 years and Eileen’s father, who was the foreman of Frampton’s Nursery, played on the team too.

I played for a few local teams and I once scored a century for Lavant! Eileen scored for 20 years and then did the teas for 20 years.

I’m a lifelong Pompey fan and season ticket holder. I remember listening to the radio and hearing Pompey beat Wolves 4-1 in the 1949 FA Cup final!

I believe you have ‘twinkle toes’ too?

We’ve always loved ballroom dancing. We went to the Booth Rooms in Chichester to learn.

There was a dance hall and tea room at Kimbell’s in North Street [now M&S], and we used to dance at the Assembly Rooms too. We loved big band music too. We used to go to the Mecca in Portsmouth sometimes and dance to the big band.

Next week: National Service, wedding bells and working life.