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Letters from home became less and less frequent as the months seemed to race ahead. Eric and I began to enjoy living in Wales, we were always occupied and everyday seemed to present us with a new challenge.

Then one day when we arrived home from school, aunt Phylis told us that we were not allowed to go outside that evening.

Uncle Bill arrived home and looked very worried, he told us all to go to the kitchen.

Uncle Bill told us that there had been a visit from the local bobby (policeman).
That there were to be a meeting of the local villagers. We were allowed to stay up late until uncle Bill returned.

We were all sat in the kitchen for some time, then uncle Bill arrived, apparently a meeting had been held in the village hall regarding a young evacuee that had run away.

It was established that the run-away was a twelve year old London boy that had run away from a local farm, a major search was conducted over a vast area in order to find this young lad.

To no avail was the price paid, for this young male did evade, apparently he left with a loaf of bread, some cheese and a flagon of water.

Until this day he has never been found, at this point you must ask yourself, why did this young lad decide to leave the area?

The thought is: You took me from my family, from my home from all that I have known.

I loathe the your use of my body while my family suffers on their own, their needs be is their must and I must return for I am theirs not yours.

And this from a twelve year old child, whom today can be his judge, he is just a boy living in the times of adversity?

Just as the summer months were coming to an end, aunt Phylis and aunty Dora had decided to take Eric and I to meet their sister Gwen in Pontypridd.

Until this planned visit we had not travelled outside of Ferndale, so once again this proved to be another adventure.

Aunty Gwen was rather a small person and very thin, while aunt Phylis and aunt Dora were more robust.

We never got to see aunt Gwen's husband Jack, he was still at work during our visit, but we did meet their two sons David and John, they were both very tall and large of build.

Both of them worked down the pit, but because this was a Saturday afternoon, they had finished their shift and by the time we arrived, they had already bathed and were very smartly dressed.

Eric and I must have appeared to them to be rather odd, they kept winking at us and kept chattering to each other non-stop.

Aunty Gwen told Eric and I not to take any notice of David and John's antics because they were being silly and that they were going out to meet their young ladies.

However before David and John left they gave us some comics to take home and then bade us farewell.

Aunty Gwen provided us with homemade cakes and biscuits, Eric and I had milk and the grown-ups had tea. It was a lovely summers day and we all had a great time.

The summer eventually came to a close the months had seemed to roll by and now we looked forward to the winter and the festive season.

OUR SECOND CHRISTMAS:

We had to use last years paper chains to decorate the house, our relationship with our family had long ago deteriorated. By now we regarded uncle Bill, aunt Phylis and aunty Dora as our true family. We had acquired the Welsh accent to a fine art somehow this is where we felt we belonged.

Aunt Phylis and aunty Dora decided to take brother Eric and I to visit their sister Gwen in Tonypandy, we went shopping and this is where they purchased our grey suits and caps.

Well do I remember the handkerchiefs displayed in our top pockets, the motifs were of gold horseshoes and green bags of gold on a white background.

Then photographs were taken of Eric and I in our new suits and another photo of Aunt Phylis, aunty Dora, Eric and I as a group. (See images).

Uncle Bill later explained to us that our real family were from London and that they had sent money and clothing coupons to purchase our new clothes.

Eric and I believed this to be a complete mystery, we questioned, whom were these strangers whom provided these Christmas presents?

During the late 1940's Hitler had decided to invade Russia whom originally were their allies, this obviously lessened the bombing impact on Britain.

1940 seemed to flash by and in early 1941 uncle Bill told Eric and I that we were going to return home to London and our true family.

To say the least Eric and I were devastated, that we were to leave the people we had grown to love and that now we were to leave them.

Brother Bill had travelled from London to Ferndale to escort us back home, we didn’t realise that brother Bill was in fact our real brother. As far as we knew he was a complete stranger.

Eric and I was very upset at leaving Wales and the people we had grown to love, but uncle Bill told us that we must do as we were told.

Uncle Bill, aunt Dora and aunty Phylis were flooded with tears when we eventually left. Brother Eric and I cried, brother Bill armed my shoulders to give us re-assurance and Eric and I gained comfort in the thoughts of yet another adventure to come.

I cannot remember too much of our travel back to London, but at Paddington Station brother Bill escorted us to dad's waiting van.

Even when we reached dad's van and saw our dad for the first time in 1 year and eleven months, Bill explained who he was but no one embraced each other.

We were lifted to the back of dad's van and bro. Bill sat with us and tried to re-assure us that all would be o'k.

We finally arrived at the Henry Prince Estate, bro. Bill dropped the tailboard and lifted us out, we were surrounded by lots of cheering people.

Then through the crowd mum, bro. Less and Ted approached us, mum holding out her arms shouting out 'my son's, my son's' Eric and I were reluctant to acknowledge mum's approach.

Then young brother Ted asked if we were his brothers from Wales and I said 'I mon' then Ted said to mum 'Ere mum that kid said I mon' mum said 'that kid is your brother Ray'.

Ironically uncle Bill and aunt Phylis had no children of their own, mum later told us that aunt Phylis was six months pregnant with her first child, when the child was born they named her Margaret.

As mentioned before during the mid year of 1941, Hitler had decided to invade Russia whom was originally their allies.

This lessoned the concentration of attacks on England and proved to be one of his biggest mistakes.

We were at home for a while and mum and dad had learned that uncle George and aunt Mary were living in Leicester. It was decided that mum, Eric, Less, Ted and I were to stay with them in Leicester.

Unfortunately we only stayed for about two weeks, during this time cousin Stanley began to influence us in bad ways.

Because our family had been brought up to be of an honest disposition, we eventually told our mum of our involvement in the theme of naughty’ ness.

Mum decided as a result of our disclosure that we must once more return to our home in London.

Un-be-knowing to all the family I had retained the knowledge how by divisive means to enter a cinema, through the back door, which proved of an advantage to my many friends when we returned home to London.

When we arrived home from Leicester we were told by our dad and also on radio, not to play on the various bombsites.

We were told of the Butterfly bomb that was dropped in the thousands all over London, that if we saw what resembled a butterfly to leave it alone because of the danger.

As children we were still vulnerable enough to want to go out and collect shrapnel, the game was that the more one collected, the more one became the best in the group.

Even though we had received several warnings of the dangers of searching for war souvenirs, we carried on doing so in spite of learning that some children had lost their lives playing on bombsites.

Though there was a lapse in the bombings in London because of Hitler's decision to invade Russia, we still had sporadic air raids giving us warnings to go to the shelters.

But because we lived in a block of flats, at this time we had no shelters to go to, a routine developed that on the hearing of an air raid siren, we were to collect warm clothing, our mattresses and our gas masks.

We were to run downstairs to Granny Savage's flat at the bottom of the block of flats.

The mattresses were laid on the floor of the front room, all the families from the block would arrive at Granny Savage's flat in a matter of minutes.

We were given various drinks and food and were comforted by the grownups, those that were frightened were many.

N.B. Please forgive the spelling mistakes at this stage, my eyes are of salted waters, t'is a great hurt.

One of the first duties for Ray was to look after young brother Less, so I decided that we should go for a walk along the Garratt Lane towards Wandsworth High Street.

When we eventually reached the crossroads I guided brother Less towards West Hill on our left, I had never been there before but I thought if we carried on we would get back home.

Half way up the hill brother Less began to cry and while I tried to comfort him, he asked a complete stranger to tell him where his house was.

The man took us both to West Hill police station, they looked after us very well, they then contacted Tooting police station, whom sent a policeman to our home address, which shook the life out of the family

It was brother Bill who had to make the journey to collect us from West Hill police station, he had travelled by tram from Garratt Lane to Wandsworth High Street and walked to West Hill police station and he was none too pleased.

Mum of course was very upset but rather overjoyed that we had arrived home safely.

It was agreed by mum, Bill and Eric not to mention to dad on his return from work, because he may be very angry, I was told to go to my bedroom and stay there and not to say anything to dad.

I heard dad arrive but I stayed put, nothing was said to dad, eventually I needed to go to the lavatory which was located just opposite the front room.
Silently I crept in and out of the lavatory, suddenly I decided I would have to tell dad of my great adventure.

While everyone was in the kitchen, I walked towards the front room door and with a gentle tap, I then began to open the door slightly ajar and poked my head around the door, then I observed dad's emotive expression.
Politely I asked my dad if I could have a word with him, he hummed and arred and cleared his throat and bade me in.

I slowly walked towards dad with my arms behind my back, I asked him if I may have a few words with him, dad motioned for me to approach but at this juncture dad didn’t ask me to be seated.

I stood in front of him terrified and questioned myself what had I done, all was silent for what seemed like an age, suddenly dad motioned me to sit opposite him.

With a strong powerful voice dad asked me what I wanted, I told him that it was my wish to tell him about my recent adventure, when I had finished explaining to dad my story he stood up demanding me to retire to my room.

I heard dad call out to mother (my mum) all I can remember is raised voices that seemed to go on for a duration, I stayed in my bedroom and covered my head in bedclothes.

The following morning dad had already gone off to work, mum told me to come to breakfast, mum, brother Bill and Eric were angry with me for talking to dad.

From that day on I felt isolated (a black sheep) disregarded, obsolete, no-one spoke to me, I stayed in my room only emerging for meals.

I was just 7 years of age and questioned myself, is this the price of war?
I had left the mum and dad I knew in Wales where I had acquired love and comfort only to return to a regime of total discontent.

To which lesson learned that I am the bad lad, no one else but me, but you shall see in future told.

That I am the Enigma be!

Lol and best wishes.
The Ray xxx

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