大象传媒

This war time story is dedicated to our Mother and Father Alf and Joan Constable

They were married on 25th November 1939. Father had been a Regular soldier since the early 1930鈥檚 and already seen duty in India.

Their firstborn child a boy was delivered still-born in March 1942.

About September of that year, Father left these shores for a second stint in India, and then attached to the Royal Tank Corps became part of the 14th Army that went on into Burma seeing the battles which took place at Imphal, Kohima and Rangoon.

Myself, June Ann, entered the world at Queen Charlotte鈥檚 Hospital Hammersmith on 14th June. Within a couple of hours there was an air raid, and Mother recounts the tale of the nurses collecting the babies up from the nursery and leaving the new Mothers to fend for themselves.

Attached is an air letter from Alf to Joan personalised to Joan and June Christmas 1944. Alf produced similar air letters for his brothers in arms. Are there any more of these in existence?

However, like so many babies born at that time it would be two and a half years before Father and Daughter were to meet face to face, and Father would not just be a face on a photograph.

From 1943 to 1945 I lived with my Mother and Gran, and time appeared to be spent shuttling as short term evacuees with relatives in Norfolk or at home in Hanwell, West London.

Then with victory in Europe and eventually the end of conflict in the Far East in August 1945, it was to be another three months before Father arrived home, and demobbed into civilian life, hoping to realise the dream of running a garage and a wool shop. Sadly, that dream never materialised.

Realising that he did not have a gift for his daughter, he came across a street peddler selling toy animals. He purchased a dog, which I still have, and one day I hope to pass it on to my first Grandchild.

Almost nine months later on 19th August, my Gran鈥檚 birthday, her first and only Grandson, my brother Alan was born. I was referred to as the embarkation baby, and Alan as the disembarkation baby.

It was not until Father found employment at Vicker鈥檚 Supermarine Factory at South Marston near Swindon Wiltshire, that our parents were able to set up their first home together at Highworth, eight years after their marriage in 1939 with two young children, and everything including curtains and furnishings on ration, which made it very difficult for quite a few years after the war had ended.

June Wreford (nee Constable) and Alan Constable.

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