The founder of the York ME Community Group has been honoured with the publication of a book to mark a lifetime of verse.
Bill Clayton, who discovered he had a way with words aged just seven when his primary school headmaster used to play classical music on the record player and then ask his pupils to describe what they’d heard, has been putting out what he calls his ‘word doodles’ on Facebook for many years.
Now he’s been treated to his own book, which is full of them.
It’s called The Word Doodle Trilogy and it contains 78 poems written about his life with ME, his 24-year career in the military and doodles that fit neither category, but just dance with life and laughter.
“They were so good, I just wanted to gather them together so more people could read this remarkable work,” said Linda Coy, who compiled the book. The two met for the first time in person last week at the Novotel Hotel in York.
What they both share is a diagnosis of ME – Bill obtained his from the ME/CFS service at Leeds General Infirmary in 2006, with Linda finding out what was making her feel so ill 10 years later.
Linda, who now lives in Leeds, joined the 350-member York ME Community Group soon after Bill set it up nine years ago.
When I met them both at the Novotel, 68-year-old Bill told me that he had joined the Army as a boy soldier at the Deepcut barracks near Aldershot when he was 15.
Once he’d finished his training, the boy who started out in life in children’s homes in Falkirk and Dumfries and left school aged just 13, served with the Army as a skilled administrator working in various headquarters round the world. He was a staff clerk in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
He was with the Ghurkas in Hong Kong and Borneo, with the British Army of the Rhine at Rheindalen in Germany and he had two tours of duty in Northern Ireland during The Troubles – best remembering the second one in the 80s for his marriage to a Belfast girl called Donna. No soldier wore the uniform while out courting in those days.
The couple now live happily with their family in Fulford, on the outskirts of York.
Portrait photo of ‘Word Doodler' and former soldier Bill Clayton; the book cover, you can buy it through Amazon; Bill and Linda Coy pictured at their first meeting in The Novotel in York.
Bill was also involved – at a distance – in the Warrenpoint bombings, the day the British Army suffered its highest number of casualties during The Troubles.
It was 27th August 1979 and 18 soldiers – from 2 Para, mostly – were killed in a double ambush at Warrenpoint on the same day that the Provisional IRA also assassinated Lord Mountbatten in his boat off the coast at Mullaghmore.
“I was on duty that day and had to take down all the information as it was coming in. It was my job to record all injuries and deaths on both sides.” said Bill. He had to type up the names of the dead and injured as they came through to the operations room at 3 Brigade HQ.
Margaret Thatcher, who had become Prime Minister just three months earlier, quickly travelled to the Province to show the flag and offer her condolences. Bill was among those who met her.
How do you cope with all that? “You put it down to your training. Everybody had a job to do. You just got on with it”, he commented. Nowadays, he stays close to ex-service associations and other veterans. The memories of what they went through are riven in their minds. Their bonds remain unshakeable.
Back to the book and Bill is grateful to have had that primary school head in Falkirk as the formative influence in his young life and giving him a such a joy in words that it's stuck with him these past 61 years.
Linda, his unofficial literary agent, says The Word Doodle Trilogy is a tribute to Bill’s resilience, humour, and lyrical spirit.
“I'd just like people who’ve enjoyed reading Bill’s poems on Facebook to know that a collection is now available and, from what I hear, he's already covered another 100 topics – more than enough for another book!”
The Word Doodle Trilogy sells at £10.99 on Amazon or £3.99 for the e-book.
Tony Britton
Senior Fundraising Volunteer, The ME Association
fundraising@meassociation.org.uk
