This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.
On the sixth anniversary of the British occupation of Iceland, the owner of the English bookshop in Reykjavik writes to the Times to commemorate the servicemen who took their turn in the lonely garrison post during the war:
I was one of the many who on that memorable day roamed the streets of Reykjavik from morning to night to see what was taking place ... the spring and summer of 1940 were among the very worst within living memory, and the only shelters the men had at their time were their tents. It must have been a miserable life for them. But in spite of all these disadvantages, and even direct provocation, the proverbial British good temper and their genial humor remained unpeturbed, a moral victory of the first magnitude.
"I am 36 years of age and have done five years in the RAF," writes 'Another One of the Many' to Picture Post. "I was demobbed in November and returned to my old job as a grocer's assistant. I have the remarkable wage of £143 per annum. I asked for a higher wage, but it was a case of take it or leave it. I have been with the firm since I was fifteen."
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