大象传媒

This is Beth McGeever of Southmoor Community School , Sunderland entering Dr. Sam Glatt's story onto the website and they fully understand the website terms and conditions of use.
Doctor Sam Glatt was born in the late 1920鈥檚 in London. His mother and father brought him up with his four brothers and one sister. He lived in a very small, middle class house environment. Before the war began he encountered a health problem and was diagnosed by doctors with having: Rheumatic heart disease, which is where the valves in the heart are damaged by rheumatic fever. After being diagnosed with this he spent 6 months in hospital, where he could only have two visitors at a time once a fortnight. Sam once even saw someone pass away in front of him, as there were not proper screens around the patients. Before the war there was no National Health service like there is now , and everyone had to pay for their health care ( up until 1948 ) After Sam left hospital neither him or his parents were given any instructions how to look after himself due to his condition or medication to take. The only thing Sam was told was that he was not allowed to do any sports, during school or out of school, as this could affect his heart. Sam commented on how the Health Service has improved greatly. 鈥淏ack then the service did not have the facilities, the care or the treatments which they have now 鈥�
In 1939, Sam was evacuated from London to Frome, in Somerset.
鈥淚 had no idea where I was going; we were just taken to Paddington station, and put on a train. At that age I should have known better, we our parents did not even come with us to say their goodbyes. When we got there, it was like a cattle market, people just picked out the children which they thought looked good , they did not really mind who or what they got as they were only really doing it for the money. The first time I was billeted, I was sent to live with a middle age woman who did not really want me there. As I was fourteen, she did not expect me to stay in every night, to read and study. She thought that I should be working. So as soon as I got in from school, I went out and sat in the park, by myself and read, whilst she cleaned and cooked. I can remember once she even cleaned around me whilst I sat at the kitchen table.鈥�
Being evacuated wasn鈥檛 all that bad though, Sam remembers not once even thinking how is parents were, or whether they were okay, he said it was great fun and has many fond memories. During the school holidays, they were made to go home. 鈥� So, we would be perfectly fine during term time, but in the holidays we would go home and get bombed in London. 鈥�
鈥淎s young lads like to do, we always used to go on long bicycle rides, through the country. And we always used to stop at country farms and buy glasses of cider to cool us down, we always used to drink it, we didn鈥檛 think of it was alcohol.
The second time Sam was billeted; he went to live with two Catholic women, and a 鈥渕ad鈥� boy.
鈥� My friend who had turned sixteen was moving away to London Music college to study. And he asked the women who he had lived with, if they would let me go and live with them, as I wasn鈥檛 very happy where I was , they agreed so, I went to live with them . They were two lovely Catholic women, who also lived with a mad teenager, well that are what the whole village referred to him as. Living with the two women made me very prejudice, as they were so lovely, kind and heart warming with me, whenever there was religious trouble in Ireland, I never used to believe that the Catholics were to blame, as I had always portrayed the women to be lovely鈥�

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