Grafter, or to give him his full name Donald, Oscar Grafter was born in 1930 to Ethel and George Grafter of Sherbrooke road Whitechapel London. He was an only child and his first years were happy and uneventful. Unfortunately, age 3 he contracted Tuberculosis after being given a half eaten sweet by his weird, tubercular infected half mad uncle which resulted in him being admitted to Aldgate Hospital, where he was subjected to pneumothorax a surgical procedure to collapse the lung and allow it to rest. It was a procedure not without risk in such a young person but luckily this,and a prolonged spell at a sanatorium in Kelling High heath Norfolk, where on clement days his bed would be wheeled out onto the lawn for him to savour the ameliorating effects of clean, fresh air, managed to save his life.On his return from hospital his parents were advised by the doctor that young Don needed to live in a residence with a garden and so the Grafters moved from their rented maisonette with concrete backyard in Aldgate to a garden flat in Whitechapel St Mary which belonged to Don’s father’s employer, a kindly gentleman who ran a building firm from a yard in Whitechapel High street. And so having cheated death, young Grafter,at the age of 5,attended the local elementary school. Having inherited from his mother a love and gift for music he sang in the local church choir which had the added benefit of providing regular exercise for his young scarred lungs. He undoubtedly was a gifted chorister with a powerful resonant voice and also showed a natural gift for English.Unfortunately, the education of the young was greatly interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War and many lessons were taught in make-shift classrooms or air raid shelters.During his time at school he was taught carpentry and mechanics as well as the 3 ‘R’s. At the outbreak of war,his father was conscripted into the army and was told that he would follow his trade which was that of a carpenter. But logic gave way to necessity and he ended up in the transport corp driving tank transporters across Europe. This was even more surprising considering that when he joined up he held no driving license. But needs must when the devil drives.Many’s the night that young Don sat huddled close to his mother in a camp bed on the platform of St.Marys underground station Whitechapel as bombs rained down upon the city of London. And then the unnerving sound of a  V1 doodlebug like a lorry engine flying overhead until its fuel spent, the engine cut out and it fell to the ground obliterating anything and anyone in its path. The sound of its engine was devastating enough but the wait in the silence that followed wondering if your number was up was chilling. Then the guilt that followed the relief of escaping by the skin of your teeth would quickly make itself felt, knowing that fate, in sparing you, had exacted its payment somewhere else. And so the Grafter family survived the war with Don’s father being de-mobbed in February 1946 at Regent’s Park Barracks and returning home with £83 in his pocket a demob suit and the promise of a right to return to his old job. Don left school at 14 and after a long period of unemployment finally succeeded in getting a job as an office boy at a bank in the city of London. For a young man still eagerly awaiting his first amorous encounter with the opposite sex this was a satisfying position to occupy. Making the tea,conveying messages between departments and filing papers but above all working in close proximity to an array of pretty female secretaries and clerks who often teased him mercilessly. However he got his own back by filling their mid-morning cream buns with toothpaste for which he was summarily dismissed. After a period of lassitude, eking out a meagre existence collecting empty beer bottles and claiming a penny for each one returned he landed a job as a security guard in an office block in Fenchurch Street.In 1949 he was conscripted into the Royal Artillery and at the end of an eighteen month stint returned to civvy street and resumed employment in the security industry until in 1955 he joined the Metropolitan police. In 1965 he joined the Special Patrol Group(SPG) where he remained until leaving in 1970 to start his private enquiry business.