My Birth

I was born in Richmond Surrey, England in 1939. Just a couple of months before the 2nd world war.
Richmond, is on the outskirts of London, and has now been brought into the London district. We lived in a semi detached brick house which was varily small. My brother Donald was eight years older than me. We both lived with our mother and father.
My father was a Police man and would ride his pedal cycle to the police station at Barnes, and then walked the beat with another policeman.

I remember being pushed in the pram by the girl next door and taken to the park.

Within a year I was in West London hospital (Hammersmith) with Pneumonia. I was in a cot in a ward with two other young children. At night the nurse would put up wooden slats at the windows to black out any light from showing to the enemy flying over the hospital in airplanes

I was in hospital for a few weeks and during that time I was not allowed visitors. I thought I might forget my mother but when they came to fetch me I remembered them and they took me home.