My first years

June 23rd, 1932

I was born at home [50 Maricas Avenue, Harrow Weald, Middlesex] at 3pm on June 23rd, 1932 during a heat wave. My father sat on the back steps waiting to be told my mother had given birth and he could go up to see his wife and new baby daughter. My father was 27 and my mother 29. My mother’s father was already dead and my other grandfather died before I was old enough to know him. My 2 lovely grannies were very much alive.

My paternal grandparents in Hastings in 1932.


Me at 4 days held by the midwife and with my 2 grandmothers.


Left: With Grandma Farman [62] and Nanny Risley [57].
Right: With Nanny [my mother’s mother]

Left: With Aunt Rosie [18 - my mother’s sister].
Right: Aged 3 months with my mother.

Two stories

My mother told me 2 stories about when I was in my pram. The first was when she was pushing the pram one afternoon along a country lane near our house and met 2 Roman Catholic nuns, who stopped her to admire her baby and bless me.

The second was a month or so later when she and my father were walking together, with me asleep in the pram, in the same area on a fine afternoon. Suddenly a bolt of lightning shot across in front of the pram causing them both to duck down instinctively in fright. They were both very shaken but apparently I did not even wake. The blessing must have worked. I remember my mother always being nervous of lightning, whereas it has always excited me.

Left: Asleep in my pram.
Right: Aged 4 months with my mother.

Left: Aged 4 months with my mother.
Right: In the garden, aged about 14 months.

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