大象传媒

I was born in Maidstone on10th November 1931
I lived happily with my mum and dad and by 1939 there were 5 children,including myself.
2 years after war was declared, my mum was taken ill and as my dad was in the army, and none of my many relatives could take us,we were put into children's homes.
I was the eldest of the children, being 9 at the time, and my brother Vincent, who was 2 years younger than me, and myself were taken to a home at Milton, Sittingbourne. I didn't have any idea where the rest of my siblings were.
We were at Milton for a short while and then were transferred to Hadlow Place, a large house in a very nice part of Kent. We had to walk to school in Hadlow a mile and half away, back home for lunch, back in the afternoon and then home after school. When I was 11 I went to secondary school in Tonbridge. We often had to go to the air raid shelters.
Whilst at Hadlow, we were bombed by Incediaries,
so we were evacuated to Wiltshire.
We returned to Hadlow Place after 6 months, although the war was still on.
All the upheaval led to me going to 6 different schools.
The people with whom I had stayed in Wiltshire wanted me to go and live with them so 6 months later, I was sent back to be fostered out with them. My mum didn't recover, and my dad wasn't in a position to get us back together, but he kept me in touch with my other siblings and when I went to Maidstone, he woukd take me to see them and I would always go to see them when I could get to Kent from Wiltshire.
My brother Vincent died of heart disease at the age of 54.
My sister Marie had 5 children, and now lives in Broadstairs,my brother John lived in Margate before going to Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and he now lives in Australia. Maureen,the youngest, lives in Ramsgate where she had 2 chidren, one of whom died of cancer at the age of 15.
I did a lot of travelling in my single days and went across land to India in the 60s.
I had three children, with the help of my wife of course.
I often wonder about the boys who were in the home at the same time as me, there were about 50.
I was there between 1941 and 1945.