My father died when I was 3 years old at the very beginning of the 194O war. My sister Rosemary was already 10 years old and we were not very close. We lived at Esher, 21 minutes out of Waterloo on the Portsmouth line. My mother, known as Gladys then, but later as Mary, having worked previously at the Medical Research Council in Hampstead, managed to get a job at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in Gower Street, near the University, which she kept until finally retiring at the age of 67 years. Obviously we didn't have a lot of money, but we managed.
She was in touch with the "Ladies Guild" of the Royal Medical Benevolent Foundation, which supported us from their second hand clothes store and with a ten shilling (50p) Christmas present for all the children. At the age of eleven, I was fortunate enough to obtain a scholarship to Epsom College, which included books and clothes as well as tuition and keep, acquiring the school number 175, which was lucky then and has won some raffle prizes since. Although not initially a happy time, things improved as the years passed. We did manage to get away on holiday to Teignmouth in Devon and Ormside in Cumberland, but holidays away were very rare.
In 1951, my mother got a message from Dorothy Newnes, then the secretary of the Ladies Guild, saying that she would like to give my name to a country GP in Suffolk, who wished to invite a deserving boy to spend a holiday at Christmas time with himself , his wife and their five children. Another boys name had been given first, but he was known to suffer from asthma, then not easily treatable and thought to be a considerable risk in view of the families liking for camping holidays.
Thus it was in January 1952, that my mother, sister Rosemary and I met Dan (uncle Dan then), together with Barbara, Ian and Robert, at the Army and Navy stores in Victoria Street for tea. Barbara was a last minute replacement for Phyllis, whose mother Granny Garrett had just died. The family had come to London to see Archie Andrews Christmas Party. We caught the 5.30 pm from Liverpool Street to Ipswich, the "East Anglian" and had jugged hare in the restaurant car on the train. (I am sorry to disappoint my readers, but I have no recollection of the engine type or name!) We arrived safely at Ipswich and I do remember meeting Margaret under the clock at the station, but on the arm of Michael Watson. Margaret wanted a lift home to Framlingham and we all squeezed into the Austin A90, the family transport at the time. It had been snowing and the roads were slippery. No wonder then that at the Charsfield turn, where the green houses used to be, we went straight on instead of turning left. Those were the days when there was very little traffic about and having stayed on the road at least, Dan was able to reverse and get us home safely. Many of my readers will have their own memories of my arrival and stay at "The Haynings", which I hope are as happy as mine.
I remember being told that following my departure home after a short stay, (was it a week?), there was a family conference to consider whether I should be invited back again. No detail was given, but the answer was fortunately "yes" and I was invited back after Christmas and during the summer for several years. Thus I gained a new family, with a kind, loving and extremely capable substitute mother, a strong determined and very practical substitute father, two more "pretend" sisters and three "pretend" brothers.
Needless to say this new family offered me enormous opportunities that would not otherwise have come my way and I remain very grateful to Dan and Phyllis to this day.
During the Christmas holidays it was dancing classes with Mrs Elizabeth Clarke, followed by village hall parties such as with Heather Rolfe. Just think what this experience would do to a shy, quiet young lad from London, let loose for almost the first time in a bevy of excited young people. No drugs and very little, if any, alcohol, but we did have a good time. During the Summer holidays, it was cycling to and from Orford in a day, staying at "the Boathouse", dealing with the Elsan, fetching water from the standpipe outside the "Jolly Sailor" at Orford , (½ to ¾ of a mile there and the same back), sailing with the family and then on our own in Puffin and Dido, both up and down the river. Many adventures including becoming trapped on a lea shore in Dido, (I think with Margaret), near the entrance to Lighthouse Creek, and being towed home by George Brinkely in "Sunray", embarassed but none the worse for that and with a lesson learnt. Later working on the farm at Dennington Hall for (probably) four weeks, and being fed and watered by Phyllis at "The Haynings", although not, as far as I remember, paying anything for my keep. My thanks to all the family who made me so welcome.