My father died in 1939, when I was ten. He had nearly completed 22 years in the Royal Navy, mostly spent at sea as an able seaman gunner. I was then sent to Reedham Orphanage, at Purley in Surrey. I arrived there soon after the war started and left in 1945. Hence my contribution. I am now Historian for the Reedham Old Scholars Association and would appreciate messages from other Reedham ex-scholars of any date.