大象传媒

Chapter 1

My name is Neville James Jarvis I was born on the 26th September 1938 at 23 Sherbourne Road North Camp Farnborough. North Camp is an area north of Aldershot.Born when Neville Chamberlain the prime minister at that time, was giving his speech to the nation,having just returned from his visit with Adolf Hitler in Munich,I was named after Neville Chamberlain.

My father had told me when I was 2 years old in 1940 when the war had started and the fears of the use of chemical warefare (gas) was becoming likely the whole country was issued with gas masks. face mask for adults and full body mask which a small child could be place in,but no matter how they tried I resisted being put in this gas mask and my father and mother dispaired because they just could not get me in it, my father said to me as I became older that he did no know what he would have done if we did have a gas attack but fortunatly he did not have to force me into this contraption. I have since seen this mask that he was telling me about and I can understand why they had trouble getting me in it and fortunatly I could not remember the occassion.

My very early memories were when I was just four years old, I was living with my mother Mabel Jarvis and my sister Patricia and two baby brothers Malcom and Brian,I did not recall that they were my brothers.as I was never told at that time.
The street where we lived was just a gravel road and I remember playing with my sister Patricia in the street and around North Camp,at that time the whole area was full of solders many of them British and Canadian all stationed at the mass of military barracks in the area.

I started at Queens Road Infants school when I was four years and six months old, The school was just around the corner from our house just a short walk and I remember going on my own to the school many times as one day I was stopped by some boys just on the corner next to the catholic church in Queens road and they ask what was I was doing,I told them I was going to school and they laught at me and said that the school was shut as it was a holiday and again my mother was not to be seen.

As many people will know Aldershot was a Military town dating back well into Victorian times North Camp is just a mile from Aldershot and Malborough Lines named after victories in Lord Marlborough,s Campaign against Louis XIV of France in the war of the Spanish Succession 1704 to 1709 Malperqat,Oudenarde,Ramilles,Lille,Tournay,and lastly Blenheim Barracks just a quarter of a mile from our house.I recall talking to many solders with my sister Patricia as she was with me most of the time and going into the Electric cinema in Camp Road a very popular place for the solders I remember Patricia and myself sitting on the laps of the solders, I was just 4 nearly five and my sister just 2 years old.

The date was around the summer of 1943 as I recall as I was walking the street with her and not being looked after by my mother My mother Mabel Jarvis who worked in the Queens Hotel just opposite to the Blenheim barracks was not caring for us as she should have and was enjoying the company of the Canadian soldiers.

Many young single women from around the whole area fell for these handsome young well off Canadian soldiers as mainly all the British solders had left Aldershot for Europe, it was estimated that women out numbered the men by 30 to 1, so it was not a problem to find a women, but unfortunatly
not all the women were single.The temptation was to great for a lot of married women.

It was estimated that some 300,000 Canadian solders came to Britain during the war period 1940 to 1945 and 30,000 or more were station in and around the area of North camp
the 1st Infantry Division arrived in 1941 1942 and the 2nd Infantry Division arrived May 21 1943 and was billeted in Salamanca and Badajos Barracks. Salamanca was the large barracks on the left and right as you came up Hospital Hill road from Aldershot town center,the buildings had a large wide iron balcony on the first and second floor running the full length of the building, these were first built for the cavalry and the ground floor was for the horses.

My father James Herbert Jarvis was conscripted and joined up in 1940 infact he joined up on the 16th May 1940 and was stationed with 1st Training Battaleon (Drvs) R,A.S.C. the Royal Army Service Corp as a moter cycle instructor in Scotland,teaching and instructing the recruits to be dispatch riders,a photogragh of him with all his trainee dipatch riders is a treasured photograph because I have very few of him taken at that time.

Now having my father Service record book which shows all the privilage leave that my father had to take to return back home from Scotland, to sort out the problems he was having with my mother. Remember this was war time and people were suffering in all sorts of ways.

Dates of Privilage Leave taken from his Army Records book, mainly to sort out family problems with my mother.

14th May 1941 to 21st May 1941
2nd September 1941
6th January 1942
1st August 1942 to 8th August 1942
2nd October to 8th October 1942
2nd November 1942 to 11th November 1942
25th March 1943 to 9th April 1943
2nd June 1943 to 12th June 1943
2nd November 1943 to 12th November 1943
22nd December 1943 to 31st December 1943
3rd December 1944 to 13th december 1944
4th September 1944 to 9th September 1944
4th December 1944 to 12 December 1944
8th March 1945 to 17th March 1945
9th June 1945 to 20th June 1945
30th August 1945 to 10th September 1945
4th December 1945 to 12th December 1945

These privilage leaves taken in most cases
without warrants to travel, so the cost was paid by my father and he traveled mostly from Scotland and the South coast.

My father had decide to leave my mother in 1943 although he was still in the Army
I do not recall him ever going back to 23 Sherbourne road.

I believe my father has posted to Bournemouth at the time of DD and was in a hotel on the front and was to meet my new stepmother their, I believe he was looking out of the back window of the hotel when he saw her,a very fortunate meeting for my father and also for me, Her name was Brenda and was living Bexleyheath Kent and working in Selfredges in Oxford street London she was eventunatly to become stepmother.

A very beautiful lady and her father was paymaster at the Woolwich arsenal
she used to visit at weekends if she could and always brought me sweets or a comic, She spent a lot of time as an air raid warden and she must have been the most beautiful air raid warden in London, she was also very lucky not to have been killed as a bomb hit Selfridges and a filing cabinet fell and hit her, so fortunatly she survived.

My father seperated from my mother in early 1943 and was now devorcing my mother I learned many years after the war that my natural mother was investigated by the social services at that time as she was reported for neglect of her children.
My young sister was kept by my mother and all the other children two brothers were put in to the care of Hampshire County Council and were placed in a home in Waterlooville.

As my mother was placed in Hollerway Prison and sadly my very young sister was born in Hollerway when my mother was there, she served six months for child neglect and this was mainly caused by her need to enjoy her life she loved dancing and the company of the solders that were stationed nearby in Aldershot and North Camp, dancing and enjoyment but at the exspence of her children. I was left many times to look after my young sister Patricia and also my two brother but I was to young to know that they were my brothers.

I have since found out that my sister Patricia was not taken or placed into care by the social services, because my mother had an idea that they were coming to take the children and hid her in a local park just around the corner from our house,Queens Road recreation ground was the park and my young sister can recall being left to play in that park, I was to learn many years later 50 years to be excact that my brothers, as I have now found out that they were my brothers, were to small to be left in the park and were taken in to care by Social Services and my mother was imprisoned.

From this time on I was not able to know what had happening to them as I had been taken from my mother by my father some two years earlier .

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