About the contributor

I was born at Vauxhall, South London in 1931. We lived in a street where the houses were in 3 levels and we lived at the top with 2 bedrooms and 1 scullery type kitchen.

My Dad worked not too far away in an ink factory and he used to come home from work at lunch times. On a Friday night, we would meet him and we would go to the sweet shop, which we would pass on the way and he would buy some sweets for me and something for my mum.

Although we didn’t have a lot of money we were happy. I had 2 brothers, one 2 yrs younger and the other 7 yrs younger.

The year 1939 changed a lot for us.