- Contributed by听
- CSV Action Desk Leicester
- People in story:听
- Norman Rochester
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A4361177
- Contributed on:听
- 05 July 2005
鈥淭his country is now at war with Germany. We are ready鈥 those fateful words were uttered from the lips of Neville Chamberlain the Prime Minister at noon in the House of Commons on Sunday 3rd September 1939. That night, King George VI broadcast to the commonwealth 鈥淲e can only do the right as we see the right, and reverently commit our cause to God鈥
I knew nothing of those proceedings being that it was almost four months to my third birthday when Britain declared war and as a result of that, any incidents in my life for the next six years was for me, merely a matter of course; I knew no difference and relevant events that happened to me at the time were considered as simply funny and laughable. Had I been a few years older, I no doubt would have had a different outlook and taken life more seriously, but Leicester I鈥檓 sure was no different to any other city or town for a child of such tender years during those bleak days between 1939 and 1945. In those days I was known as Leslie Charles Osborne, the adopted son of Ethel and Walter.
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