Chark's Bones

About the Book

As World War 2 begins, Private Ben Stewkley is among the Hamptonshire Regiment retreating across France to Dunkirk. He is called upon by his brutish sergeant major to collect paybooks from the pockets of mutilated dead soldiers. Ben’s nerves give way. He shoots the sergeant major and walks off into the smoke and noise of the battle.

Before the war, young Ben lived with his embittered and widowed mother in Fairport, a small coastal town on the English Channel. It lay on the western shore of the navy port of Hampton. His escape from the restrictions of home and school was by means of the bicycle left him by his father. On a ride into the country he met a young woman and fell in love. His mother, on finding out about his journeys, forbade Ben to see the woman again and sold the bicycle.

Ben decided to leave home and join the army. He walked to the young woman’s home and said goodbye before going on to Hampton to enlist.

Among the other boys living in Fairport were Paul Lovedean and a very young David Chark. Paul’s father was the captain of a destroyer on patrol in the Atlantic. David, destined to become a senior policeman, is the son of Solomon Chark who reluctantly made the decision to let his only son be evacuated to the supposed safety of Fairport to evade the blitz on London.

David lived with the Darleys who were a poor and childless couple. While living in Fairport, David made a friend in Phil Privett. They attended church together and sang in the choir at a service for local soldiers killed in the war. One of the names read out was Ben Stewkley.

In the spring of 1941, the British army moved into a former horse pasture south of Fairport. They set up camp and installed anti-aircraft guns. Paul Lovedean and the other boys made friends with the soldiers who frequented the “Duke of York” pub. The pub became a focal point in the story.

The arrival of the army brought the war closer to Fairport and the mayor convened a meeting to discuss the construction of a community air raid shelter. Albert Hoff and his son Ted, a local contractor, got the contract. After delays and argument, they started to build the shelter. At the same time, the army was digging a complicated series of defensive trenches across the salt marshes. A German pilot, shot down on his way home from a bombing raid, baled out of his airplane and landed on the marsh. As he walked towards the town he was killed by a blow to the head. He was buried in the local graveyard as an “unknown German flier”.

In the summer of 1941 the community air raid shelter was still not complete. By this time, the Luftwaffe was passing overhead on its way to bomb London. The citizens of Fairport became angry at Albert Hoff for not meeting his obligations. The gunners at the anti-aircraft sites are anxious for their families enduring the blitz on London.

Finally, the shelter is completed and the Fairporters dutifully go down to the shelter each time the warning siren sounds. Soon, they tired of the routine and ignored the siren. The shelter fell into disuse.Paul Lovedean and his friends played in the horse pasture among the deserted trenches and wartime pea-patches. They created a game of running through the darkness of the air raid shelter. It was a scary place and Paul is nervous about descending into it.

One day, as they cooked vegetables over a camp fire, a frightening soldier accosted them and kicked over the cooking pot. The boys ran away from him.

Captain Charles Lovedean’s destroyer, HMS ELSON, arrived back in Hampton and the crew got shore leave. Before leaving the ship and for wartime security reasons, each sailor exchanged his hatband with the name of the ship on it for a blank one. Captain Lovedean kept two with with the ship´s name on for a souvenir.

When Lovedean was free to go home on leave, he made his way across the harbor by ferryboat. H

About the Author

Holman Smith was born on the south coast of England. He witnessed the Battle of Britain and the WW2 Blitz as a child. He served in the Royal Navy and later emigrated to the United States where he worked as an aerospace engineer. Holman lives on the Pacific coast of Washington State with his wife, Susan, and two welsh corgis. He is a past president of the Seattle Writers Association. Holman Smith is working on his third ‘Chark and Beane’ novel.