An Accidental Statistician: The Life and Memories of George E. P. Box

“Contrarywise, if it was so, it might be: and if it were so, it would be: but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.”

Chapter Two

Army Life

At home in Gravesend, my family congregated for meals and other activities in the basement kitchen. When it had become clear that war was inevitable, my father, who had experienced the First World War, went to the wood yard and bought a number of very large wooden beams with sections of about 8 inches by 8 inches. With these he fortified the walls and ceiling of the downstairs kitchen so that in an air raid we were less vulnerable.

For many months before war was declared in 1939, people in Britain had been warned what to expect: raids of hundreds of enemy planes dropping bombs and poison gas. Everyone had been issued a gas mask that was carried in a cardboard box. At 11 a.m. on September 3, 1939, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced on the radio that we were at war with Germany. Almost immediately the air raid sirens blew, so my family went to the downstairs kitchen, but once there, we realized that we might be short of drinking water. In the kitchen was our zinc bathtub in which each family member took a weekly bath. We hoisted the tub onto the sink and filled it with water from the tap, forgetting how heavy it would become. In our attempt to lift it down, most of the water spilled onto the floor, so apart from everything else, we had a small flood. After about three quarters of an hour, we heard the “all clear” siren. Our first air ...