Our subject was born in 1946 just after the end of the Second World War to parents from slightly different backgrounds. His mother was from a working class background, and her father worked in an Iron Foundry and her mother ran a small shop in her front room selling pottery and china. His father was in the RAF during the war, subsequently going into partnership in a Jewellery Business, and his father was a strict Welsh Methodist Lay Preacher and his mother was a very quiet lady from Lancashire.
His recollection of his early years as a child from being born to the age of 5 or 6 years are very limited. Some of his early recollection are of times when he was unwell it was always his father who would comfort him through the night. He also remembers having a close relationship with his grandfather, and grandmother on his mothers side, but not having any similar recollections about his other grandparents. He can also remember being dressed up by his mother for shopping trips into town, and tea and cakes with his mother's friends. He almost felt like an object to be shown off ( look at my son, look how well i have dressed him ). This sort of feeling has a constant thread throughout his childhood and later on in his life, the constant pressure to be better than his parents friends children.
At the age of six he contracted pneumonia and spent what seemed like an eternity in hospital and undergoing a lumbar puncture to extract fluid from his spine. During this time he was on the critical list and it was touch and go whether he would survive. Well he did only to find that two weeks later after getting a shock when falling off a fence he was back in hospital again with pneumonia, fortunately he made a full recovery.
Our subject was born in 1946 just after the end of the Second World War to parents from slightly different backgrounds. His mother was from a working class background, and her father worked in an Iron Foundry and her mother ran a small shop in her front room selling pottery and china. His father was in the RAF during the war, subsequently going into partnership in a Jewellery Business, and his father was a strict Welsh Methodist Lay Preacher and his mother was a very quiet lady from Lancashire.
His recollection of his early years as a child from being born to the age of 5 or 6 years are very limited. Some of his early recollection are of times when he was unwell it was always his father who would comfort him through the night. He also remembers having a close relationship with his grandfather, and grandmother on his mothers side, but not having any similar recollections about his other grandparents. He can also remember being dressed up by his mother for shopping trips into town, and tea and cakes with his mother's friends. He almost felt like an object to be shown off ( look at my son, look how well i have dressed him ). This sort of feeling has a constant thread throughout his childhood and later on in his life, the constant pressure to be better than his parents friends children.
At the age of five he contracted pneumonia and spent what seemed like an eternity in hospital and undergoing a lumbar puncture to extract fluid from his spine. During this time he was on the critical list and it was touch and go whether he would survive. Well he did only to find that two weeks later after getting a shock when falling off a fence he was back in hospital again with pneumonia, fortunately he made a full recovery.
It is important to mention at this stage that he has no real recollection of feeling loved within the family, in fact he cannot remember any demonstrable signs of love between anybody ( mother and father ). However he felt close to his grandpa ( mothers side ) and has fond memories of walks, and trips out with him. He also felt close to his grandma ( also mothers side ), but did not like her constant cleaning up around his grandpa which used to annoy him no end. He later came to realise that it was just her way and did not do it to annoy anybody. As for his other parents, he has little recollection of them, as they died before he was about six. There are two things he remembers quite vividly about them were firstly, he had his first sight of a television as they were the first people who had got this latest invention. Secondly he can remember after they had died and it came time to empty their house ready for the landlord to take possession, his father going through all the drawers, and cupboards in the house and finding bank notes concealed under newspapers that were lining the cupboards and drawers.
Now at the age of 7 yrs he was to endure the single most traumatic event in his entire life. When out playing with his friends they had ventured onto the rear of the local Petrol Filling Station, which was only a matter of 100 metres from his own, and his friends houses. One of his friends father owned this filling station / garage so it was not the first time they had played there amongst the old scrap cars, tyres and oil drums etc. While playing there they came across a large canister shaped tank approximately 7 metres long and 2 metres in diameter lying on its side with a pipe protruding from the top at one end, and a small pipe from the opposite end of the tank. It was positioned next to a scrap car, which made it easy to clamber on the top of the tank which he did. He sat there holding on to the protruding tank pretending to be the captain of a submarine. One of his friends produced some matches, so the now pretend captain ordered the other boy to go to the other end where the small hole was, to light a match and put in the hole and then look through the hole to see if he could see inside the tank. He never got chance to look inside.............
More to follow shortly
His recollection of his early years as a child from being born to the age of 5 or 6 years are very limited. Some of his early recollection are of times when he was unwell it was always his father who would comfort him through the night. He also remembers having a close relationship with his grandfather, and grandmother on his mothers side, but not having any similar recollections about his other grandparents. He can also remember being dressed up by his mother for shopping trips into town, and tea and cakes with his mother's friends. He almost felt like an object to be shown off ( look at my son, look how well i have dressed him ). This sort of feeling has a constant thread throughout his childhood and later on in his life, the constant pressure to be better than his parents friends children.
At the age of six he contracted pneumonia and spent what seemed like an eternity in hospital and undergoing a lumbar puncture to extract fluid from his spine. During this time he was on the critical list and it was touch and go whether he would survive. Well he did only to find that two weeks later after getting a shock when falling off a fence he was back in hospital again with pneumonia, fortunately he made a full recovery.
Our subject was born in 1946 just after the end of the Second World War to parents from slightly different backgrounds. His mother was from a working class background, and her father worked in an Iron Foundry and her mother ran a small shop in her front room selling pottery and china. His father was in the RAF during the war, subsequently going into partnership in a Jewellery Business, and his father was a strict Welsh Methodist Lay Preacher and his mother was a very quiet lady from Lancashire.
His recollection of his early years as a child from being born to the age of 5 or 6 years are very limited. Some of his early recollection are of times when he was unwell it was always his father who would comfort him through the night. He also remembers having a close relationship with his grandfather, and grandmother on his mothers side, but not having any similar recollections about his other grandparents. He can also remember being dressed up by his mother for shopping trips into town, and tea and cakes with his mother's friends. He almost felt like an object to be shown off ( look at my son, look how well i have dressed him ). This sort of feeling has a constant thread throughout his childhood and later on in his life, the constant pressure to be better than his parents friends children.
At the age of five he contracted pneumonia and spent what seemed like an eternity in hospital and undergoing a lumbar puncture to extract fluid from his spine. During this time he was on the critical list and it was touch and go whether he would survive. Well he did only to find that two weeks later after getting a shock when falling off a fence he was back in hospital again with pneumonia, fortunately he made a full recovery.
It is important to mention at this stage that he has no real recollection of feeling loved within the family, in fact he cannot remember any demonstrable signs of love between anybody ( mother and father ). However he felt close to his grandpa ( mothers side ) and has fond memories of walks, and trips out with him. He also felt close to his grandma ( also mothers side ), but did not like her constant cleaning up around his grandpa which used to annoy him no end. He later came to realise that it was just her way and did not do it to annoy anybody. As for his other parents, he has little recollection of them, as they died before he was about six. There are two things he remembers quite vividly about them were firstly, he had his first sight of a television as they were the first people who had got this latest invention. Secondly he can remember after they had died and it came time to empty their house ready for the landlord to take possession, his father going through all the drawers, and cupboards in the house and finding bank notes concealed under newspapers that were lining the cupboards and drawers.
Now at the age of 7 yrs he was to endure the single most traumatic event in his entire life. When out playing with his friends they had ventured onto the rear of the local Petrol Filling Station, which was only a matter of 100 metres from his own, and his friends houses. One of his friends father owned this filling station / garage so it was not the first time they had played there amongst the old scrap cars, tyres and oil drums etc. While playing there they came across a large canister shaped tank approximately 7 metres long and 2 metres in diameter lying on its side with a pipe protruding from the top at one end, and a small pipe from the opposite end of the tank. It was positioned next to a scrap car, which made it easy to clamber on the top of the tank which he did. He sat there holding on to the protruding tank pretending to be the captain of a submarine. One of his friends produced some matches, so the now pretend captain ordered the other boy to go to the other end where the small hole was, to light a match and put in the hole and then look through the hole to see if he could see inside the tank. He never got chance to look inside.............
More to follow shortly
