Life

Planned pages underlined - they are not links.  Photos to add when sorted out.

Here is an outline.  Many one-word/three word reminders to be expanded.

When discussing or sending email just use topic numbers ie 3.5 etc

1  Intro 

2  Overview

3  Before London

1.      Born in Redhill [Surrey] nursing home 1941
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3.      Grand parents - Redhill
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5.      Borstal Road, Rochester  -  Mother went off - lived with cousins six months  1944
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7.      HM Prison Rochester ... HM Prison Rochester (formerly known as Borstal Prison) is a male         Young Offenders Institution, founded in 1870, and located in the Borstal area.
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9.      Saturday morning pictures

4  London c 1945

1.    Lived in posh mews behind  the then St George's Hospital on Hyde Park Corner.
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3.    Nanny/housekeeper was my 'mother'
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5.    Step-father owned or rented a restaurant in Kensington High Street
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7.    Cubs
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9.    Step-brother 1956 and maternal obsession
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11.    Bowls
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13.    Must have been the last year of the war when a bomb went off and I fell onto the toilet and cut     my chin. Remember being in the hospital.
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15.    Nightmare

   

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5   Kent c 1948

Click Littlestone - small detached cottage on the beach, step-father paid rent for six months

The three of us were amazed as the railway station was on the pebbledbeach!

1. 
   
2.     Several rented rooms in that village
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4.     St Mary-in-the-Marsh tent on a farm through the winter. Shiver, shiver.
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6.     New Romney - on Romney Marsh which is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties      Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. more
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8.     Caravan - tiny and on a farm
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10.     Beach hut with green slime running down the walls due to rain coming through the roof -  Shiver, shiver.
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12. Wash yourself. The head teacher dragged me out of the classroom and took me to the cloakroom.
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14.  Beach tent - nine months inc winter
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16. Vicars etc peered in but did nothing
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18. One morning we all woke up with black noses coz the paraffin heater went into smoky                   flame.
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20. Schoolboy friend lived in a nearby large house and fed me with doorstep sandwiches     
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22. We played with fire.  A whole grass bank went up as we held a magnifying glass to focus the sun shine. 
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24. While a gardening lesson took place, he stuck his fork into the side of my foot.  The school bully tied him to cloak hooks and left him there.  

 6   Isle of Wight 1952

1. Gurnard
2.       House
3.       School
4.       Scouts
5.    Freshwater
6.    Potato picking
7.    Other rented and otherwise living places
8.           Fireworks
9.      Ryde
10.         About four living places.
11.         School
12.         Lifeguards
13.         St John Ambulance
14.         First proper job - washing up
15.         Paper rounds
16.         Methodist youth club
17.         Mice - found a squat place
18.         Bike accident - hospital

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7  Binstead  IoW 1955

1.           First Council house as result of living in a mice-ridden squat with plaster of Paris round                my left knee.
2.           Wrote a list of all living places at age of 14 - 32 and 26 schools. {more to come]
3.           Scouts
4.           School in Ryde

8  Portsmouth  late 1955

1.      School - murderous
2.      Scouts - Catholic troop
3.      Cricket balls - made them for pocket money when in one of several houses/rooms

9  Back to Isle of Wight 1957

1.       School   East Cowes Technical Grammar late entry system 
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3.        Due to leave school in 1957. No prospect of passing any GCE
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5.        Man from shipyard offered jobs.  Started 3 January as trainee plater
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7.        Left in May as would have had to sign up for five year apprenticeship.
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9.        Washed up in a hotel.
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11.        Queen Scout  and click Jamboree
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13.       Portsmouth College September 1957 - crossed each morning by ferry

10  Back to Portsmouth 1958

1. Second year of craft course.  Worked evening and weeks ends to survive all years at the college.
2. 
   
3. 1959 joined second year of the hotel management course

11  September 1961 to 1967

1. Started first proper job teaching 14/15 year-old boys catering.at the sec-mod at Littlehampton.
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3. Met Teresa, rented two rooms in Rustington.
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5. Rented a bungalow and married in August 1962.  
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7. Miscarriage 1964.
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9. Decided I needed London experience.
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11. Moved to rented flat in Wimbledon in 1965 for six months 
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13. Job as manager within the Metropolitan Catering Service. 
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15. Bought first house in Ewell near Epsom in 1965.
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17. Rachel born in 1966.

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