大象传媒

When I was 10 my Mother and Father, sister aged 11 and I lived in Sholing, Southampton. My father opened a shop in Sholing in 1936 having returned from Sudan with malaria having worked there for a number of years. The bombing started in 1940 and my sister and I had a week off from school, half term and we had a distant relation who lived out the other side of Totton, in a small restaurant at Copythorne. Her name was Mrs. Spedding. Having recently lost her husband, she was lonely and so asked my parents if they would allow my sister and me to stay with her for the week for company. We went out to stay with her on Sunday 24th November 1940 and each evening after closing their shop, my parents joined us so that we could all get a good nights sleep. They returned to their shop each morning. Mrs Spedding was convinced that they would not be affected with bombing out there. They travelled out each night in a car which they had just bought from my Father鈥檚 sister for 拢15. She had just lost her husband aged 29 in the bombing on the Super-Marine, Woolston where the Spitfires were built.

My parents came out to the house at Copythorne about 6 pm on Saturday 30th November 1940. Mrs Speding had the tea ready. My sister and I were seated by a wall on a table for 2 and a few feet away on my left sat my Mother, my Father, my Mother鈥檚 youngest sister aged 29 and Mrs. Spedding, her mother-in-law. My Mother and Father were both aged 43.

The house suffered a direct hit. My Mother and Father were both killed together with my Mother鈥檚 sister. I was seriously injured, disfigured for life and lost my left eye. My sister had a china doll with her and the doll lost a little finger but my sister was unharmed. In complete darkness my sister and I were buried in the debris. I pulled myself out with the help of my sister and what I remembered was that I鈥檇 lost my slippers. The ARP rescue service from up the road came down and broke through the demolished building and rescued my sister and I and my Father who later died from his wounds. The ARP men sat me in a deck chair, I was streaming with blood and my sister was like a little nurse. They took us to Romsey hospital and they laid me on the table. The cut my clothes off before I became unconscious, I was not expected to survive. My grandmother and grandfather lived in Woolston and they鈥檇 brought up their own children, 10 of them. They took us on and my Grandfather ran the business. We went to live in Woolston with them and I eventually went back to school after losing two years schooling. I went to Portchester Road school. They put me down with the 5 year olds but I managed to get out of there fairly quickly.

I left school when I was 14 陆 but no one would give me a job because my face was disfigured, this was in 1945. I got a job in a barbers shop eventually. My first wage was 35 陆 pence a week. My grandparents used to get 8 shillings a week from the government to keep us. I started in this barbers shop and the manager in this shop asked me if I鈥檇 like to take up hairdressing, I said no as I didn鈥檛 think I was suited to Hairdressing. My sister was working in Thornycroft, in the office. My sister got me a 5 year apprenticeship as a joiner. And I served my time until I was 21. My grandmother died just as I finished my apprenticeship and I came out with a weekly wage of 拢3.

I used to do some gardening for my grandparents and one Saturday I went to East Street in Southampton to buy a gardening book. But when I got there I saw this little blue book called Healing By Hand and that book changed my life in 5 minutes. I read the book and felt it was for me. I didn鈥檛 have any qualifications but I decided I wanted to be a physiotherapist. I went back to school at night and I picked up some support from teachers and tried to do my O levels. I packed it up when I failed. Fortunately I won some money on the Football Pools which gave me a kick start. I bought a shop, a sweet and tobacco shop and I lived there with my sister until I married in 1954, my sister also married. Doing some woodwork I happened to hurt my back and I went to see Mr Masden a physiotherapist in Bursledon. I saw certificates on his wall for the very course I wanted to do and I decided to study again. I did home study as well as further studies at Leatherhead and Maidenhead. I qualified as a physiotherapist and operated a very successful business until I retired at the age of 65.

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