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 I was born at the small fishing village of Winterton-on-Sea, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk on 8th March 1924. I was my mothers penultimate child. I had five older sisters and three older brothers, followed by one younger brother. mother was a house maid and her name was Laura and father whose name was John was a herring fisherman, who served on the Naval Patrol and Minesweepers in the 1914/18 war. Mother was a local girl but father was born at Sunderland, hence his nickname of “ Sunderland Jack ”. Mother had by present day standards a very hard life. My brother Reginald was washed overboard and lost at sea in March, 1927 whilst fishing for mackerel from the port of Padstowe aged 20 years. At that time he was the bread winner. My father died aged 50 years in 1930 leaving mother widowed with one boy and two girls bringing in a few shilling a week. The remaining six of us were school children and babes in arms.
 We were born and brought up in a two bedroom cottage with no running water, no electricity or gas and earth closets, yet somehow mother kept us all clean and tidy. Food was often short and lots of times the herring was the staple diet. We never went really Hungry, because somehow mother produced suet pudding, Norfolk dumplings and all sorts of wonderful “fillers”. All of us boys grew and developed into fine young men and we all grew to at least six foot tall. We all went to the Methodist Chapel and Sunday School every Sunday. We all also attended the Village Primary School and all left at the age of fourteen years to go to work.
I passed the eleven plus examination but was unable to go to Grammar School because mother had no money to spare for the uniform etc.
There was a girl in my class at Winterton School called Zelia, who was later to be my wife and companion through life.
Times were hard for the family but thank God we survived.
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