This is the website of W.N.Alty, my grandfather. It was created to bring more of his self published books ‘Better Born Lucky Than Rich’ and ‘Fore and Aft’ to the internet, with bits of the books uploaded here, and to give an online home for his stories and experiences.

It’s actually his Christmas present, and I do hope anyone passing finds it an interesting distraction in their day, or discovers a reference to someone or something they perhaps recognise from their own family experiences. It could be details of Minesweeping in the Navy during WWII, or his D-Day training or experiences. Perhaps you might also know someone who worked at Vickers Shipyards on HMS Invincible and the Nuclear Submarines. It could even be the look of his first car (an Austin 7) or some other part of his life which resonates with your own family experiences.

It could even just be the nudge your own grandfather needs to write his memoirs…

From the introduction to ‘Better Born Lucky Than Rich’ :

“This is an account of the wartime experiences of someone who, both as officer and rating, was never more than a very small cog in a very large wheel.

It makes no pretence to be at all an official record. Nor is it necessarily the correct order of events, as it has been drawn entirely from memory of sixty years ago and without benefit of diary or notes of any kind.

Whilst it mainly covers the more humorous and light-hearted episodes it does include several more serious events. If, on reading it, you get the impression that “a good time was had by all” I would remind the reader that for much of the time covered by this account, one’s life was expected to be in some danger and the temptation to indulge in out of character behaviour was great.

Furthermore, like our memories of the summers of our youth, we tend to only remember the good ones.”

Welcome, and thanks for stopping by.