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For more than 70 years Harry Shattower from Hedge End kept a guilty secret - but now he can reveal the truth about the Mystery of the Missing Biscuits. Harry, whose talented hands have made him one of the most sought-after watercolour painters in the south, was just a young lad when his family moved to Southampton and set up home at 19, Bromley Road, Bitterne Park in the mid-1930s.

The family's move from Carshalton, Surrey to Southampton came after Harry's father, a driver for a wholesale food company, fell in love with the Avenue, the Common and the port's manicured parks.

Not long after arriving in Southampton, Harry's father was given a large tin of custard cream biscuits, which he brought home for the family.

Even after all these years, Harry still clearly remembers the occasion when he and his parents, together with his brother and sister, gathered round the tin full of biscuits.

"There were layers and layers of biscuits, each separated by sheets of thick blue paper, and we were like bees round a honeypot,'' said Harry, now 77.

"We were given several custard creams each, and what a treat is was as it was very rare to have biscuits at home in those days.

"Over the following weeks the layers slowly went down. Then I was at home on my own and feeling a bit peckish so I looked in the larder and spied the tin.

"What a sight for hungry eyes! I remember digging in as, after all, no one would notice if one or two biscuits went missing. Then I had one more - or perhaps two - and maybe another one. I put the lid back on, just in case someone came into the kitchen.

Harry Shattower, circled, pictured with classmates at Bitterne Park Junior School in about 1938.

"Nobody was about. All was quiet. I looked in at that lovely tin of biscuits, but to my horror more than half a layer of biscuits had gone and my mother was bound to notice.

"The solution hit me. Eat the rest of the layer, remove the blue paper to show the next rows of biscuits and no one would know. So I took a handful of custom creams and started to eat, although I was already full up so it was quite hard work and put me off custard creams - for the time being, at least.

"That evening I was asked if I would like a biscuit. I declined the offer. Just the look of that tin was enough.'' Harry contacted Hampshire Heritage after seeing a recent feature in which he spotted the name of William Kirby - who was known as Uncle Bill back in the 1930s.

Uncle Bill was a close family friend, as he worked with Harry's father - also Harry - as a Southampton Corporation bus driver. They were also colleagues in the Home Guard during the Second World War.

"Our family were great friends with William Kirby and his wife Madge. When I was a youngster I suffered from asthma. One day I was so bad Uncle Bill used his motorbike to take my dad to pick up my medicine,'' said Harry.

"Before we moved to Southampton my father would drive down from London to Southamp-ton Docks. He usually left in the early hours of the morning, arriving in Southampton at about 6am or 7am.

"He drove down the Avenue with the tall trees on either side of the road, and in the early morning sun he looked over to the well-tended grass of the Common. After going down London Road, Dad would see the bird aviary on his left, the Titanic memorial and the Cenotaph, together with the lovely parks with their flower beds and well-kept lawns.

"After passing the Forum Cinema he continued down Above Bar, through the Bargate and along the High Street, with the Gaiety cinema on his right, the former All Saints Church on the opposite side, and then further down Holy Rood Church, and on until he saw the impressive Town Quay and the water beyond.

"Father was so impressed with the town that he persuaded my mother Win, sister Pauline and younger brother Dereck and myself to move to Southampton.'' Harry, a former pupil of Bitterne Park Junior School, trained as a graphic artist at the former Deanery School in Southampton and went on to work for a number of local firms until he established his own screen printing company. He was also a leading member of the Southampton Publicity Club.

Married to Chris for 48 years, the couple met when Harry was a Boy Scout in Bitterne and his wife-to-be was a Girl Guide.

5:10pm Monday 17th March 2008

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