| Abstract | Memories of Ivan Pullen by Geoff Russell-Grant February 2021
My father [William Russell-Grant] was a great friend of Ivan Pullen, and our family had a holiday bungalow at West Mersea, where a relative, Smeaton Grant, was the island doctor, though he'd retired by the time I met him.
We used to go over to the Rose in school holidays when I was quite young. Mary would do us a tea, usually in the garden, and there was a large shaggy dog called Brownie who would snap at wasps and simply chop them in two, which impressed me no end!
Rosemary's horse would go into the bar and be given a pint of beer; those were the days! Rosemary married a tea planter, surname Tebbit I think, and we were invited to the wedding. Aged about 10, I was heartbroken to see her go!
When Penny took up nursing she went to the Royal Hants County Hospital in Winchester to train, and my father was a consultant there, so we saw quite a lot of her. I remember him saying to her one weekend when she came to see us, that he was lecturing that week, and he said 'someone always drops their pencil box, and I say 'just leave it on the floor - it can't go any further'. Needless to say, this took place during the first lecture, and Penny nearly burst herself trying not to laugh!
Sometimes we got held up by the tide on the Strood, and would pop in for a quick drink. On one occasion, as we neared the front door, a chap came out with a young teenager lad. He saw dad and greeted him most warmly, insisting on going back into the bar and buying drinks. It turned out later that he'd tried to buy his under-age son a beer, and Ivan, who did not suffer fools gladly, had told him to leave. However, Ivan was behind the bar serving, and saw us coming in. 'This man saved my life! I must buy him a drink' says the chap. Ivan looks at dad, and says 'What did you want to do a silly thing like that for, Russell?'. Strangely it all passed over fairly amicably. As soon as we left, mother, who got quite steamed up when the continuum of proper social behaviour was broken, asked dad whatever that was all about. Dad said 'Oh, we were both in a Japanese POW camp, and this fellow decided he didn't like eating rice. So I took the rubber tube off my stethoscope and pushed it down his throat while four other prisoners held him down and I poured a rice and water mix down the tube. After that experience the man decided that eating rice himself was the lesser of two evils.'
I have a feeling that Ivan wanted to train as an accountant, but when the pub needed a new landlord, he took it on rather unwillingly. I think he found the life of a publican very tedious, with the same old people telling the same old jokes every night. However, he really loved Mary and the girls. Mary always said that they would make money if they did food, but for some reason Ivan was against it. Essentially he was a 'pint and a bag of crisps' man, not a restaurateur.
Ivan said that sometimes someone would pass him a rather suspect book, either a 'penny dreadful' Mills & Boon, or something illustrated and a lot more naughty. This used to really annoy him, as he had a first class brain, he preferred better reading and I think he disliked the thought that someone took him for an uneducated man.
I remember he was a real countryman, with a fantastic knowledge of birds and wildlife. He gave me a small shotgun, a 410, and together we potted a few starlings sitting on the telephone wires outside the pub. Not politically correct these days, I'm afraid.
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