大象传媒

We were a big family. There were twelve children and I was the second child. I was born Patricia Barbara Harris; my parents had a couple of rooms in Kensington High Street and that is where I was born on 24th June 1932.

My dad was a plasterer; he was a very strict parent and we all were kept in line by him. He didn't talk much to us. My mother was lovely, very caring and sweet.
When I was about seven we left Kensington and were given a council house in Harrow. By the beginning of the war there were seven of us -Joan, Alec, Ron, Len, Jean, Derek and me. Some time early on in the war there was an air raid over Harrow. We lived near the main railway line to London and bombs were dropped only a street away from us -a fourteen year old girl was killed and our house was so badly damaged we couldn't return to it. We were lucky -we took refuge in our neighbour's air raid shelter because ours was water-logged. That probably saved our lives. We never went back to our old home; for a short time we slept on the floor at our auntie's house who lived nearby. Then we were told we were going to be evacuated to Northampton. My Dad was given special leave to see us off. There were seven of us children and my Mum who took the two youngest with her -Derek was still a baby. We took the train to Northampton. When we arrived there, we walked along St Andrew's with our few possessions; that is my first memory of Northampton. We must have been a poor looking lot of kids because the old woman who took us in made me and my sister new clothes soon after. Joan and I were boarded with a family in Semilong Road. The house was big; it was opposite the vicarage. The family who lived there consisted of
an old couple and their five grown-up children who still lived at home.
Joan and I were given the attic room to sleep in. Luckily for us, Alec, Ron and Len were in the house next door so the family was kept close together. Mum and the two youngest children were housed in Far Cotton. My Auntie Rose lived just round the corner in Gordon Street. She had left London not long before the war. We often went to see her during our time in Semilong Road.

Life in Northampton was quite peaceful during this time. There were no
air raids. I went to school at St Paul's School in Semilong. Soon, the old couple complained to my mum that Joan and I were always arguing and they couldn't stand all the disagreements. Mum decided to split us up so I went to live with the parents of Rose's daughter's fiancee, They lived in Cranford Road, Kingsthorpe. They were a lovely family and I was really spoilt. Once again, I moved school -this time to Kingsthorpe Grove. It had so many evacuee pupils that it only provided half time education. The evacuees had one half of the day and the Northampton children the other half!

Towards the end of the war Mum was given a big council house in Merthyr Road. It had five bedrooms. There had been seven of us in 1939 but Dad had still been home on leave so the babies kept coming -Brian, Rita, Robert, Michael and Peter! Peter was my favourite -he was a lovely baby!

In 1945 Dad finally came home and we were all reunited. I was thirteen years old when we all lived together again. I wasn't really very happy, though. My pad was so strict and severe that you couldn't be happy. It wasn't our fault that there were twelve children in the family! Mum had been on her own with us for nearly six years and she now had to get used to life with Dad again. My mum was wonderful and always so kind We never went back to London. We were now all Northampton people and I still live here sixty years later. I married a Northampton man, Geoffrey Smith, who was a wonderful husband and I have a son, Alan, and three lovely grandchildren.

The war caused a big change in our lives but we have all come through it
well...

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