In his article in the Watford Observer in Sep 2012, Oliver Phillips described ex-secretary of Watford Football Club, Ron Rollitt, as “the one man administrative staff at Vicarage Road for 24 years or so” and “I rated him an ace man to deal with”. This article was to “express appreciation for the living and not wait for them to move on”. Ron was pleased to receive a call from Oliver, his ex-colleague from the newspaper offices where he worked after his departure from the club, especially as it happened to be his 90th birthday.
Ron got his first job when his Uncle Ted was boozing in the Compasses on the corner of Market St with Jimmy Knight, who asked: “You don’t know a lad who needs a job in an accountant’s office, do you?”
During WWII, Ron was a Sergeant Instructor in the RAF regiment, training ordinary recruits, Australian air crew then free French Air Force. Ron was billeted in a white Bauhaus-style house by the cemetery in Whitley Bay, Northumberland. Ron was in bed when a raid was on and some chaps wanted to go outside to see the action. Ron said: “I can’t be bothered”, but they carried him out in his bed and put him in the flowerbed to watch.
It was in Whitley Bay at a Methodist Church gathering that Ron met local girl, Alma Reed. Alma was born in the grandly named Arcot Hall cottages in Cramlington, 10 miles up the road from Whitley Bay. Alma was called up to join the Civil Nursing Reserve during the war and was trained for a fortnight at Lanchester and Hexham hospitals. Ron and Alma married in St John’s Methodist Church, Monkseaton in 1946 and moved down to Ron’s home town, Watford in Hertfordshire.
Travels Through Time 