- Contributed by听
- brssouthglosproject
- People in story:听
- Rosamund, Wilfred and Joan Seymour
- Location of story:听
- Sydney, Austrialia
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A8563827
- Contributed on:听
- 15 January 2006
War Baby in Sunny land-Sydney, Australia
I, Rosa, was born to an Australian mother and an English father in Sydney Australia January 1941. My parents say that it was a beautiful, hot, sunny mid-summer day with little fluffy white clouds floating across the bright blue sky.
My patriotic father, along with a lot of young Australian men 鈥渏oined up鈥 at the outbreak of WW2. His younger brother had sailed to Australia to 鈥渟ee the world鈥 and to be with his oldest brother so he went with him into the Australian army 鈥 the Royal Engineers.
In England my father and his brothers and sisters were privately educated. At school he was in the army cadets where, according to his mother, he reached the rank of sergeant and won pistol shooting competitions at Bisley, England. My grandmother said that because of his military background after his initial training he was promoted to sergeant in the Australian army and put to train new recruits.
The land of Australia is one-third tropical zone and two-thirds temperate, its mountains are high enough to have heavy snow in winter. Training of recruits was done 鈥榓t home鈥 in tropical jungle, temperate bush, desert and mountains. My father travelled extensively in Australia with the army before, at his request, he was posted abroad. His mother said that he felt guilty training men to go abroad to maybe die whilst he stayed safe.
I lived in what was probably an old Australian farmhouse, on a stock route from Parramatta to Sydney. It was a beautiful, single storey, brick built house with a tiled roof, a chimney and a veranda which had a tiled floor and ferns in hanging baskets. It was surrounded by single storey houses, cottages and blocks of flats. The old stock route had become a major highway to the centre of Sydney. My grandparents, parents, aunt and later my brother who was born a year after me all lived in this big house. The gardens had lawns, flower beds, vegetable plots, fruit trees and vines, also palm trees. Opposite was a large park, with gardens, tennis courts, a bowling green and children鈥檚 playground.
My grandfather, who was still working, but too old to enlist, was a gardener. We were never hungry. My mother would crate up food and send it to my English grandmother. However this was wartime so the parcels did not always reach their destination, but one lot of green peaches from our garden did, I鈥檓 told that they were over-ripe but delicious on arrival.
Because we lived in a large house, only a bus ride from the centre of Sydney my mother became a forces landlady. I became thoroughly spoilt. Most of the sailors were American, though some were English or New Zealanders. The Soldiers were mostly Australian as were the airmen. They seemed happy to stay with a three generation family, even if it meant four or five men sleeping on the sitting room floor. These extra people to cater for must have made a lot of extra work for my mother, with a baby and a toddler to care for, but she always seemed serenely happy. My brother and I had lots of temporary 鈥榰ncles鈥.
Our English lodgers were always cheerful. They would take my brother and I to the park, play with us in the garden and read to us. The New Zealanders were very homesick, after all their entire home was just across the water, so they were a bit glum and did not take much notice of my brother and me.
My favourites were the Americans, who were obviously rich, because as well as taking us to the park, playing with us in the garden and reading stories to us they gave us money for sweets, or lollies as they are called in America. Many of these temporary uncles would say to me, 鈥淚鈥檝e got a little girl at home, just like you鈥. No wonder I was spoilt and they were happy to entertain my friends as well.
One of my friends lived across the road from us. His father was in the Australian navy so it was just him and his mother who lived in their cottage. We played in their kitchen and dining room on the occasional wet days. His mother was very tolerant of us crawling through her legs, over and under the furniture with toy cars and trains.
Another friend lived in a house further down the road. Her father was in the Royal Australian Air Force so she lived with her mother, smaller brother and her Welsh grandfather. I could not understand what he said so I just smiled at him because he seemed very nice, just like my grandfather. Her mother would translate his Welsh accented English into Australian accented English for me.
My other friend lived in a house around the corner from us with her mother. Her father had been in the Australian army, she told me that he had gone to live heaven, up in the sky. He never came home from the war but she seemed the same as us because none of had fathers and we were all happy. However her mother, although very pretty, with long blonde hair was always sad.
The war eventually ended. My mother told us that daddy was coming home, but who was he? We didn鈥檛 know. What did he look like? 鈥淗e will be wearing a soldier鈥檚 uniform, so go and stand by the gate until he comes鈥 she said.
We did as we were told, but it was very confusing. There were so many men in uniforms walking past our gate so we started asking the soldiers 鈥淎re you my daddy?鈥
Some said 鈥渘o, I鈥檓 nobody鈥檚 daddy鈥. Some said 鈥淣o, my kids are further up the road鈥
Then a soldier came in the gate and was walking up the path to our door. We hadn鈥檛 seen him. We are so busy talking to others. We ran after him calling, 鈥淎re you my daddy?鈥 鈥淵es,鈥 he said, mummy was in the doorway laughing, 鈥淵ou are my Rosalina and my Robert鈥!!
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