大象传媒

I was born on 1st September, 1936, in Beckenham. The family home was then in Coney Hall, Kent.
In the summer of 1939, we all moved to a bigger house in Upper Elmers End, Beckenham
Three days after my third birthday, on the third of September, war was declared on Germany.
For the first few months of the war, the hostilities had little effect on our lives, and it wasn鈥檛 until after the blitz that Dad decided we should be evacuated, so it was the latter part of 1940 that Mum, Ian (my older brother) and I were sent off to a village called Eastleach, near Cirencester, to stay with a family called Sykes.
Conditions there were very primitive, with no water, gas nor electricity supply, not even a toilet. So as soon as possible, we were moved to better accommodation in the nearby village of Coln St Aldwin.
My dad worked at Muirheads and was involved with important work in the war effort and had stay in Beckenham. He was in the home guard.
I started school at Easter, 1941. It was at the village school, and we lived in the school house with the village teacher, so going to school was going through a door!
Somewhere at the beginning of 1943, dad decided it was safe for us to go home back to Beckenham. So we left the Cotswolds, only to return in 1944 when the 鈥渄oodlebugs鈥� started coming in.
But, by April 1945, the tide of war had turned in our favour, so we once again returned home. This time, to stay.