21.05.12

You were born in 1943 in London. Tell me about your family; how many brothers or sisters, and what life was like growing up in the 1940s during the second world war?

I was only two when the war ended but I was left in the home until I was seven as my dad and step mum were working in the states. I have a brother two years older than me, he was put in the same home as me at one week old I was kept for three weeks, they must have liked me better. I didn’t get on ever with my brother until about 5years ago and now we are a lot better. The foster home wanted to adopt him but didn’t want me which was ok as I hated them, I was hyper-active and he was more sedate, I could also fight better than him so he was always trying to get the better of me. My real mum was still in England and used to come and see us twice a year and take us to the village for tea which was good, as after the war everything was on ration, but I think the foster home had a fiddle on the black-market as their was always a cupboard full of sweets in her bedroom. I used to get sent to bed early on a regular basis so I would creep across the landing to her bedroom and steal some sweets from the back of the shelf and reset it so it wasn’t noticed, then eat my sweets, put the sweet paper in the toe of my shoe because we were searched in our pockets before we went out.I was very brutal to my brother Monty and twice put him in hospital, once I broke a brick over his head. just before Christmas, and I didn’t get any presents which I was a bit pissed off about and once when chasing him to give him a right hander I pushed him under a car and ran off; he was in hospital for a year and a half , but I was only six and a half and didn’t realize the true extent of what I had done. I used to be tied to a chair so I would be still and caned round the legs, and when I swore at her she would make me eat the soap when she had bathed me to cleanse my mouth, (it didn’t work). Dad came back from the states after the accident as Monty was in a bad way.

Source: fightnews.com