Memories of Douglas Number 7

CHILDHOOD

The photo shows a little toy dog which belonged to my late husband Douglas. As he was born in 1928 it's lasted very well. It's about 3" high, made of leather with felt eyes and a red felt tongue.

Douglas was born in Islington, London. He was an only child. His father was a policeman who had come to London from Essex. His mother was born in East Sussex and was from a farming family. She was the only one of her brothers and sisters to leave the area.

At the beginning of every summer school holiday Douglas's mother would take him to her parent's farm on the train. She would stay a couple of days and then return to London leaving Douglas with his grandparents, aunts and uncles.. He had a lot of freedom - after doing chores and helping around the place he went off around the fields amusing himself. He enjoyed the country life but he wished there had been other children to play with. The day before school started again his mother would travel down to Sussex to collect him and go back home.

One summer holiday ended differently to the others. His mother was taking him back to London on the train as usual and she casually mentioned that they were not returning to the house Douglas had left weeks before. They had moved. Douglas's Dad had been promoted to Sergeant and this meant they had moved to a different area in London.

Obviously they had known this for some time but never mentioned it to him. He never got to say goodbye to any of his school friends. He was due to move up to Senior School and before the holidays he had been to the school to look around, met the teachers etc. He already knew some of the older boys who said they would look after him when he went there. Now all this was changed and he had to go to a different school where he knew absolutely no-one. Couldn't be helped but he would have preferred to have been told earlier so he could get used to the idea.

It just seems sad that he was not even warned of what was to come - maybe they could have let him stay in London that summer and have time with his friends and even help with moving his own stuff to the new house. Maybe this attitude was typical of parent/child relationships in those days - children had no say in the family.

( Late blip today as son hogged the computer to listen to the cricket - England v India I think. )