1940s: The Derby Jack kissed goodbye 57 years ago

Brothers: Ron and Jack

A Bygone era: St Peter’s Street, Derby, in 1949, the year Jack Bodill emigrated to Australia. He used to drive buses where it is now pedestrianised. The street is seen here decked out to welcome Princess Elizabeth – who became Queen Elizabeth II three years later – when she came to open the Council House

DERBY in 1949 was a very different place – just ask Jack Bodill. Because the last time he was here was during that very year.

He’s finally come back to the place where he was born and bred after 57 years on the other side of the world.

Jack vowed never to return to these shores after departing for Australia as a young man with Helen, the wife he met in Sydney while serving in the British Navy during the Second World War.

But at the age of 81, he felt it was time he paid the old country a visit – much to the amazement of his brother Ron (75), of Little Eaton. The trip was kept secret from him by family and friends who conspired with Jack to give Ron the surprise of his life. Delighted to be reunited, the brothers have spent the last couple of weeks revisiting familiar, and not so familiar, spots around the city and county.

“Derby has changed beyond all recognition,” said Jack, who used to work as a Derby bus driver. “I can remember driving my bus down St Peter’s Street. Now it’s all pedestrianised.”

St Peter’s Street, as Jack would have remembered it in 1949, is pictured. The fashions and style of a bygone era still bear the echoes of a war fading only slowly from memory.

“I know rationing was still in when we left and we’d got fed up with that,” laughed Jack.

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