Personal Recollections of Stephen Salt

I was then a London cab driver, and I remember picking a typical city gent of the time, pinstripes, black jacket, bowler hat with umbrella and leather briefcase in hand.

I was listening on my transistor radio (radios were not allowed in the driver’s compartment at that time) to all the latest news of the war when the city gent poked his head through the driver’s partition, and asked in his best Old Etonian accent “How are the Israelis getting on?”

I replied “very well indeed.”

With that he said “Jolly good show!” in his same smart accent. How times have changed – in those days Israel was perceived as the underdog.

I lived in the Stamford Hill area, and I remember that when the news of the outcome of the war was known, cars driving up and down The Hill with their horns blaring, Israeli flags hanging out of the windows, and posters of Moshe Dayan in the back window. I felt so proud of Israel and to be a Jew.

– Stephen Salt, Westcliff-on-Sea