Greetings from your great.............................. Grand-dad.

My friends and family call me Pat. I was actually christened Thomas, Pat came about because my Dad was born on St Patrick's day--- more about that later. Let me start by telling you a little about the world I grew up in.

I was born on the 19th December 1920, two and a half years after the end of the 'First World War'.

My father fought in that war, he was in a regiment called the 'Household Cavalry'

It was a strange and terrible time, some soldiers rode in newly invented airplanes and tanks while others, from 'traditional regiments, like my father, still rode horses and carried swords.

When I was nineteen, I fought in the 'Second World War'. I was an engineer and my job was to mend fighting airplanes and keep them running.

Most of my time was spent in the deserts of North Africa and a country called Palestine.

When I came home, I met a lovely lady called Elizabeth and we married soon after.

Our first child, Richard was born a year and a half later.

Here is an idea of how fast my world has changed. In 1899, when my father was born, television, radio and telephones did not exist, People communicated by letters which were delivered by hand, by very short messages delivered by pigeons and by a simple code sent through wires by telegraph.

In 1899, cars shared the roads with horses. Airplanes were little more than kites with engines.

In 1919, when my father was twenty, the fastest airplanes flew at 100 miles an hour.

When I was 20, the fastest planes had reached 450 miles an hour.

When my son was 20 men had just travelled to the Moon at 26,000 miles an hour.

By 1885, only a few tons of the high explosive TNT had been produced. 70 years later, a hydrogen fusion bomb was built and detonated. It had the explosive power of 50 Million tons of TNT.

It is now 2006. Seventy years ago, all calculating devices were mechanical. Television was still a scientific curiosity, the transistor and the electronic computer had not even been thought of.

Airplanes used propellers and ships and trains were powered by steam engines that burned fossil coal.

We did not know how the Universe came about or that it was expanding. Supernovae and Black Holes had not been discovered, in fact they had not even been thought of. Very few people had even heard of Relativity and Quantum theory.

Seventy years ago, women had recently gained the right to vote but they still did not own their own property after they married until 1948.

These are just a few of the things that have happened during my lifetime.

Now my son has a daughter and she has a daughter called Lily. Already I am writing to one of my children's children's children; I wonder what the future has in store?

My daughter Sally also has a daughter called Sophie and Richard's other daughter, Jordana is growing to be a fine woman.

If any of these names are your great, great Grandmother, I can tell you they were lovely babies and I held them in my arms.

All my love from 2006

Pat.