大象传媒

Born on 22nd May 1942, I have very few World War 2 memories. This means I was conceived probably in August 1941. My father was not in the Services due to a reserved occupation (builder and plumber) and dermatitis. I鈥榲e often wondered the wisdom of conceiving a child in 1941, bearing in mind the state of the war at that stage. Needless to say, I never queried this with my father 鈥� my mother died in 1946. They were married in September 1938, so possibly they had been trying for some time to conceive a child.
I have just four memories.
My sister Jane was born in 1944 and I remember being in a Morrison Shelter with m father in our back room and asking where Mummy and Jane were, and being told they were in the front room under a table. These rooms were on the ground floor; the normal bedrooms were at the first floor level. The reason for this arrangement was clearly because of the doodlebugs. Whether this arrangement was for family survival purposes or the simple fact that Jane was still a baby and waking at night, father had to work all day and frequently spent the nights at the ROC post.
My father was in the Royal Observer Corps at Saxmundham and I well remember having a picnic outside the post and sitting on a rug with my mother and sister. Father came towards us with headphones on and smiling at us. It occurs to me that this may have been a celebration picnic at the end of the war. I have a named photo of those in the F2 Saxmundham Royal Observer Corps during the Second World War; I daresay there were others.
I also remember a march in Saxmundham with men in uniform and I think this may be a celebration march at the end of the war. I鈥檓 not altogether sure about this.
At Iken I remember barbed wire across the road to Orford, the road to the left went to Iken and to the right to Tunstall. I think Sudbourne was evacuated for military training during the war. This may have been soon after the war.
In the Daily Mirror of Monday 9thMarch 1942, the only non-war article was a story about my grandfather, Charles Henry Hayward (1878-1948) going down a well to successfully rescue a cow!
A first cousin to my father, Peter Davey, who lived for most of his life at 87 Straight Road, Lexdon, Colchester, was a prisoner of war of the Japanese. I believe he was probably with the Suffolk Regiment). At the end of the war when the Japanese guards had disappeared and he was extremely ill, they raided the stores and found the Red Cross parcels which had never been given to them, he found a jar of marmite which he ate. It 鈥渃leared him through鈥� and he believes it saved his life.

I鈥檝e racked my brains many times about the war, and these are the only memories that ever come through. I am unaware f any close relatives being killed in either World War. From the family research I have, non of my grandfather鈥檚 or great-grandfather鈥檚 siblings were killed either.

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