MY brother Jack was a frontsman at Buttery's the butchers. That was before he was called up in 1939.

A frontsman? Well, there were no windows and he sold the meat from outside on The Parade. He was well known. We were big rivals to Gibson's and Fishers over the road. Sainsbury's was next door to it.

Mr Buttery was what you called a high class butcher he served the people from Cassiobury Park.

Jack left the butcher's for the war and was a Desert Rat for four years under Montgomery and co, and never had home leave in all that time.

He was on £3-10s a week and Mr Buttery could not afford him when he came home, what with rationing and everything. So, after the war, he opened a shop in Luton. I was a butcher as well and started in Croxley Green. I was there for more than 25 years, at least. We have been retired 15 years. Sadly my brother has passed on.

I worked in the Northern Watford branch for Mr Buttery. He was a churchgoing man and was a churchwarden at St Mary's.

There was the High Street branch, one in North Watford and a Garston branch and one in Harrow. It was called Buttery and Baines in those days.

He was a very prominant man in the town and a staunch supporter of Watford FC and would pinch any of his employee's bikes to ride up to Vicarage Road to watch on Saturday afternoons.

MR JIM GADSDEN, of Huish Episcope, Somerset

May 6, 2003 13:30