Uncle’s daily grind was a step too far

Arecent article about the number of rail passengers who inadvertently stepped out of trains during World War II and disappeared on to the track (Mail) was one I read with a great deal of amusement. During the Blitz, there was a complete blackout at night to prevent enemy aircraft being able to work out where they were over South-east england, so there were no lights at the railway stations. One evening, during particularly bad weather, my uncle was travelling back from London Bridge en route to his home near Woodmansterne in Surrey. carriages in those days were individual units without a linking corridor. Doubtless, the compartment was hot and full of cigarette smoke, neither of which did much for my uncle other than to send him off into a deep sleep. the train suddenly lurched to a stop at a red signal light somewhere near east croydon, at which point my uncle awoke from his nap and, thinking they had arrived at his unlit station, picked up his briefcase, opened the compartment door and promptly fell straight out on to the track. Fortunately, his fellow passengers were publicspirited enough to reach out and help him back on to the train. A quick dusting down and he should have been ready for the interrupted journey to continue, as and when the signal went green. But for reasons that were never quite established, my uncle clutched his briefcase, shot across the compartment, opened the other train door and promptly fell out on to the track again! He survived his second tumble and afterwards could not explain just what mental processes he had gone through to prompt such irrational behaviour. He was rarely, if ever, drunk and probably simply reacted to a regular occurrence on the daily grind home from London via Southern railways. After the war ended, his whole family emigrated from their working premises in new cross Gate to spend many more fruitful years in the north island of new Zealand due, in main, to their belief that the next war would be nuclear and they wanted to be as far away from europe as possible. Colin Davis, Woodchurch, Kent.