大象传媒

I was born in Barnstaple, Devon on 29th September 1940. My father was a schoolmaster at Abbotsham. The family all came from London and we went back quite regularly. By 1943 we had moved to Swindon and in July 1944 to Wallingford, Berkshire.

The family suffered an early loss when my mother's grandfather was killed in the early bombing of 1940. His wife was injured and was taken to relatives in Northampton where she died a month later. My mother was close to them and was not told what had happened until after I was born.

My maternal grandparents lived in Drakefell Road, New Cross. My earliest memory is being taken to the shops at Nunhead Station in probably early 1942. Many years later I went to the same area and realised I had been there before. The reason for the vivid memory was that I had been left in a pram outside the shop. This was boarded up and I obviously thought I had been left. The house at Drakefell Road was badly damaged by a bomb and they moved to the staff flat at St.Georges Hall in the Old Kent Road. I still have an Edwardian Cabinet with its original glass which was the only surviving piece of furniture undamaged by that incident.

Later in the early summer of 1942 we travelled to London from Swindon with some Canadian soldiers. By the time we arrived in London my mother had recieved presents of sweets, chocolate and Glaxo sweetener (in a grey tin). I remember that one soldier saying I looked like a child he had left at home. I was very blonde at the time. I often wonder what happened to this man. The time journey can be placed in the month or so before the Dieppe Raid. Did these men go on that raid? Did they survive.?

Between 1942 and the summer of 1944 my father taught at a school in Swindon old town. At Easter 1944 my father thought it would be a good idea to have a day in the country. So we set off for Marlborough and Savernake Forest. We reached Marlborough and could go no further. The forest was off limits.

I well remember in May 1944 sitting on the kerb on Highworth Road, and seeing lorries, tanks and jeeps parked up. Soldiers from the USA gave us sweets and coins. Then suddenly they were gone. Of course we now know this was the prelude to D-Day. My father did fire watching several nights a week. My mother and I slept under a table shelter . We had become used to the constant noise of enemy aircraft flying over, resumably to bomb the Midlands. However, this particular night my mother woke me to the noise of aircraft flying much lower. Looking out of the window we saw planes towing strange black shapes all had their landing lights on. Of course this was the beginning of D-Day.

Within a couple of months we had moved to a village near Wallingford. One Sunday in September 1944 just after thew service had finished there was heard the thunder of aircraft. As we went outside we saw, what appeared to be many hundreds of planes and gliders going east. Nobody knew what this was but of course it was the beginning of the Arnhem operation. While we lived at Wallingford my parents often entertained injured servicemen at our home. I was a very large house with a garden and orchard. Sadly the latter is no longer there. I believe that these me came from the Canadian Red Cross Hospital, which was based in Mongewell Park. Very early on I became used to men with no limbs, men on crutches and in wheelchairs. I asked no questions but I am told I entertained them well.

My paternal grandfather died after a long illness in 1945. This branch of the family lived at Cedar Grove, Bexley and I remember the very large garden they had. The journey out was by tram to Eltham and then a bus. We often had family visitors to the country and I remember them going home with fruit, vegetables and honey. My father was an amateur Bee Keeper. At this time two members of my father's family were serving in the forces. Uncle Robert was in the Navy on a cruiser and Uncle Len was a wireless operator with 12 Squadron. After the war we did not see much of them. Robert went to join the Australian Navy and went on to serve in Korea. I have his medals framed in a place of honour. He came back to the UK in 1953 and was part of the Australian contingent for the Coronation. He took my cousin and I out for the day and we were treated to the high life including going to a resturant. I believe that Len suffered with illness after his return from the far east in 1946. He completed 32 operations in his tour of duty between July 1943 and January 1944. I have details of his service record.

I also remember going on a tram from New Cross up the Old Kent Road to St. Georges Hall, Methodist Church. The church itself was a ruin but the other buildings at its rear had survived.

I remember little about VE day probably because there were few celebrations in the small village in whic we lived. I have two other memories. The music of the time, my mother would always listen to Workers Playtime and Music While you Work. I think that these two influenced my musical tastes. I still love Glenn Miller and some of the dance bands of the time. There was another programme which regularly broadcast Theatre Organ Music and this must have caused my liking for this instrument. I was influenced and impressed by the war time broadcasts from the 大象传媒.

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