大象传媒

I was born on the 30th December 1944 at the very end of the war and so not really born amid the bombing of the previous months and years. However, I was an official war casualty. My mother, Frances, was not three months pregnant when the first doodlebugs started falling and I well remember her and other members of the family telling me how they stood outside the front door of the family home in Bexleyheath watching what they regarded as small planes being fired on from the guns in the nearby Danson Park, they felt so sorry for these young German pilots being targeted so vigorously. It was only the next day did they realise it was the first of the V1 bombers they had been watching. During one of these raids, my mother threw herself on to the ground to protect my then five year old brother, Teddy. She thought nothing more of this and life went on as usual. My mother had suffered from heart problems since she was seven, when she had rheumatic fever, following the birth of my brother she was told another pregnancy could prove fatal. For that reason she didn't tell her mother, my Nana
that I was on the way. On the 29th December my Mum told my Nana that she was going home, just five doors up the road to prepare for the birth of her baby. My Nana was upset to say the least, for not only was it her birthday but also the first anniversary of the death of my grandfather.
After a very difficult night with her friend who was to become my godmother, my Mum gave birth to me at 5.30 a.m. It was initially thought that I was dead and was wrapped in newspaper and put under the table, it was more than 30 years later that I was told this by my godmother who saw a slight movement. Some three months later, I began to have naevie coming out on me, first around the tummy and then on the head. I was at first referred to Great Ormond Street for Sick Children, where it was explained to my Mum that the marks on me had been due to her falling during the doodlebug raid and that I would be officially classified as a war casualty. I believe that some form of radio therapy was used to remove these unsightly marks but that the machinery at Gt. Ormond Street had been damaged so I had to be taken to St. George's hospital Hyde Park Corner. The treatment worked. However to this day I have a small lump on my forehead which always becomes larger when I am not well. If ever I have a headache, which is rare, it always goes through the small lump and is very painful.
My brother had been very ill during the war and I was not allowed to touch his back, he had had part of his rib cage removed during surgery for an abscess on his lung and if I went near that area - well I just didn't. However if Teddy ever touched my head - well he just didn't.

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