Part 1 (1956-1966) - The Beginning – My Earliest Memories - 1959 - 1961

The Beginning – My Earliest Memories 

Before I paint the picture of my very young life I am bound to give you some indication of what was to come. The affluent life my parents had enjoyed was to go irrevocably wrong, and that fall from grace would set an unusual childhood path for me.  In my first decade of life I would live in 10 different homes, this the effect of my parents financial collapse and subsequent struggles. And although that would provide an unusual foundation for my future life, it curiously was not something that I would really become aware of until much later in my adult life.

However, let me start at the beginning. As I have already said I was born on a Sunday Morning – April 22^nd 1956, in a Maternity Home in Lagos, Nigeria. I was naturally unaware of this important event. However, I was a joy to my parents, who already adored their pretty little 4 year old daughter Susan. They were living in a large house and had African servants to manage all their household and domestic duties. I was primarily cared for by African Nannies, whilst my parents indulged an affluent life of dinner parties and mixing with the white aristocracy and business community, and with the diplomats of Colonial Nigeria.  

1957 - On Board Ship on on of many journeys to and from Nigeria and the UK - Me Learning to Walk

This is not to say that that I was not loved by my parents, but simply that they were living a life style that was all too soon to be washed away by Independence. Nigeria’s path to Independence started in 1960, and its impact saw my father’s business affairs in Cocoa Plantations fail and my parents return to the United Kingdom.  This was not a complete disaster, as he would then seek to establish new commercial enterprises with the money he had retained from his Nigerian business.

I have absolutely no recollection of Africa – nothing at all. My earliest flickering images are of a old thatched house, with a beautiful green English Garden – and a place name - Caterham. In the house there was an open ornate wooden staircase that wound its way upwards – and I remember a piano that I would noisily pluck at. My bedroom was small, and in the eve of the thatched roof. I remember being disturbed at bedtime by a humming noise, and my parent’s realisation that there was a Bees nest in the Thatched roof – later duly disposed of I suppose. I remember a glitteringly sunny afternoon – walking down from the bottom of the garden and downwards through a flickering green wood, my parents, Sue, others (family friends perhaps).

A quarry at the end of the wood, precipitous, large, daunting. We turn for the return journey uphill. I am little, 4 years old perhaps, the air was warm, weariness washed over me, and I was swept up by big strong hands, and rode the journey home on my Fathers shoulders, safe and protected.

And then there was another home, a Bungalow. I can see it so well, my bedroom, Sues bedroom, and my Parents bedroom. There was a garden that had a Pond, and I met for the first time with fascination (and just a little trepidation) 'Newts'.  I had toys, and a particularly splendid Electric Train Set. 

64 Buxton Lane - Caterham

I started a School, Infants – I vaguely remember not liking it – I was away from my Mother who had always in my memory been at the centre of everything. I have a vague recollection of being made to stand in a corner for failing to eat my dinner adequately.

My Father always had to have the "best". I remember his car at this time - a shiney new Sunbeam Rapier. I remember sitting in the back on sunny Sunday afternoons when we would go out for a 'drive'.  I remember vividly the day a cyclist made him break suddenly, and a whole new vocabulary opened up before me as he yelled out of the window, and my mothers ensuing remonstrations with him....

Then there was a day – it made little impression in a strange way – and yet it was a turning point. I remember men walking into our Bungalow home. My mother was crying, my father nowhere to be seen. I was surprised when they took the furniture, and a little anxious when they took my train set. My Mother hugged me and told me that everything was alright. I wondered as they took all her jewelry boxes, the ones I so loved to explore.  I was four years old.

It was many years later before I was to realise what Bailiffs were, and what Bankruptcy meant! I would never know the full story - they took it to their graves. 

Although I did not know it - from this time on everthing would change!!