Alfred H Bond was a career sailor who joined the Royal Navy in 1913 at 15 years of age. As a boy, his main ambition was to join the Navy, but his father was insistent that he should continue his apprenticeship with the family plumbing and decorating firm. According to family legend, things came to a head, when, on a occasion of being served spotted dick for dinner, said to the effect: "I wouldn't have to eat this....if I was in the Navy". His father was furious, and Alfred, along with two friends, enlisted soon after. As a gunner on the battleship HMS Marlborough, he saw action at the Battle of Jutland, the ship taking torpedo damage but remaining operational. Two of his brothers, Harold and Walter, were killed in action in France, serving respectively with the 1st Cambridgeshire Regiment and 55 Squadron Royal Flying Corps. After hostilities ended, Alfred remained with the Marlborough, which in March 1919 (before the official peace with Germany) was ordered to the Crimea, to engage Russian revolutionary forces and provide safe passage to members of the Romanov royal family. Leaving the Navy in 1922, he rejoined the family firm, eventually taking over from his father, and commanded the March (Cambridgeshire) volunteer fire brigade during WWII and after. His grandson has worked for Culture Trust for the past 10 years.