ese priceless papers was lost in

7. Norman F. Joly G3FNJ. (Formerly SV1RX).

I was born in Izmir (then known as Smyrna), on the west coast of
Turkey in Asia Minor, in 1911, of British parents. My British
nationality was established through the Treaty of Capitulation which
was then in force between Turkey and the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland. I remember there was a British Post
Office in Smyrna and we posted our letters with British postage stamps
(of King Edward VII) overprinted with the word LEVANT.

My grandmother on my father's side had come from Russia. It is a
strange coincidence that Takis Coumbias (ex SV1AAA), Bill Tavaniotis
(ex SV1KE) and I all had roots in southern Russia. My grandmother on
my mother's side was the daughter of the Dutch consul in Smyrna. Quite
a mixed bag.

In 1922, at the end of the war between Turkey and Greece, the town
of Smyrna was destroyed by fire when the Greek army was routed. My
widowed mother with four young children, was advised to take us on
board a British merchant vessel while the town changed hands. We were
told to take a little food with us just for a day or two. We carried
a large string bag with some bread, cheese and fruit, and one knife,
one fork and one spoon between the five of us. I remember it was night
and my mother put all her jewelry in a small leather bag. As I
pulled the cord to close it the pin of a large broach stuck out
through the top. My mother grabbed it and said I would hurt myself--I
was only 11 years old at the time. She looked around the bedroom,
lifted up a corner of the mattress of her bed and hid the pouch
'safely' underneath it. We hurried out of the house--and never went
back.

We and many other families spent one night on the merchant vessel
where there was no sleeping accommodation. Next morning we were
transferred to a large hospital ship called MAINE. All day we watched
small groups of the Turkish and Greek armies skirmishing on the
sea-front and in the evening many fires broke out in the town. In the
middle of the night while we were sleeping the hospital ship sailed
away to an unknown destination. After two or three days we arrived in
Malta, where most of us stayed for the next four years.

It was in Malta that my interest in wireless telegraphy was first
aroused. We were housed in some military 'married quarters'. Close
by there was a wireless station which produced bright gre