Sedgley’s
Diamond 60
Sixty years, sixty people,
sixty stories about village
life
1956
The Suez Crisis
by Martin Jones
My earliest memory is of my dad going off to work in
the morning on the back of his colleague’s motorbike
during the Suez crisis of 1956/57. At that time our
family were living in Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire
and my father was a partner in a solicitor’s practice in
Stevenage, around 30 miles away. He usually
travelled to work in our family car, a Wolseley 4/44.
A three-year-old Martin in around
1956/7, at the time of the Suez
crisis.
17th December 1956 was different. Petrol supplies to
garages had already been cut by 10%, prompting
panic buying and long queues at petrol stations. On
that day motorists were further restricted to travelling
200 miles a month, making a daily drive to and from
Stevenage impossible.
It was the beginning of petrol rationing in the UK,
caused by the nationalisation of the Suez canal by the
Egyptian president Gamul Abdul Nasser.
The Israelis, British and French had colluded to
invade and occupy the canal region: an Anglo/French
invasion of Suez began on 5th November 1956 when
the 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment captured
El Gamil airfield.
Nasser responded by sinking 49 ships and rendering
the Suez canal unnavigable. The crisis stopped oil
exports from travelling the short route from the
Persian Gulf via the Red Sea to the Mediterranean
through the Suez canal and posed a severe threat to
oil supplies to Europe. Eventually, the Americans
forced the British and French into a humiliating withdrawal, and the UN took over and unblocked
the canal. It was the death-knell for British
imperialistic actions abroad. With petrol in such short
supply, Mr Johnson, my father’s articled clerk, who
lived nearby, offered dad a lift to work each morning
on the back of his motorbike.
The family car, a Wolseley 4/44,
which was abandoned during the
petrol rationing of the Suez crisis
Nasser cheered by supporters in
1956.
The Anglo-French invasion of
Suez, 5th November 1956.