I was Born 112 London Road South, Lowestoft, Suffolk, England 7/3/1937.
In 1939/1940 My family was evacuated from Lowestoft, ( our parents told us this was due to our home being bombed whilst we were sheltering in the shelters during the war, but having been back to Lowestoft and inspecting all the address we were known to have lived at I can find no trace of bomb damage ).
Our family was spilt up on relocation into Derbyshire, my brother living with a Mr, & Mrs Mellor's, My sister with a Mr, & Mrs, Ward in the village of Bramley Vale, the rest of our family our Mother, myself & youngest sister living with a Mr, & Mrs, Pulford in the next village of Doe Lea, our Father at this time was serving in the Royal Navy, his Ship H.M.S. Cypress was Mine Sweeping out of Lowestoft.
Some time in 1940/41 our Mother was offered a home were the family could all be together and were our family all grew up, this was in the village of New Houghton, Derbyshire, later after the war had finished our parents were offered accommodation back in Lowestoft but for reasons unknown to ourselves they refused it saying the family was settled and did not want another move, I recall vividly at the time I personally was very disappointed as I wanted to go back but it was not to be and the family continued to grow up in New Houghton
Times were very hard for our family growing up as money was very scarce but our childhood was very happy Our parents during our time whilst we were growing up spoke very little of there families in Lowestoft and it was not until our Mother died in 1973 I myself started to think WHY! I know I never questioned this question I suppose it was due to the fact I was enjoying my childhood so much I just never had time to think about these things.
However by the time Mum died I was feeling inside me a deep desire to know about there our time back in Lowestoft, the time was not right and I was not able to think much more about it due to by this time I had my own family and home and was having to work every minute to make a good living for us.
Then sometime in 1974 our father was feeling sorry for himself and feeling very miserable with himself when he announced to my elder Brother & Sister he would like to go back to Lowestoft and see his sisters again, you can imagine what effect this announcement had on our family, it sat us all down on our pants because as far as we were concerned Dad was the only child, nothing had ever been mentioned before whilst our Mother was alive of him ever having having any Brothers or Sisters.
My eldest Sister Florence made contact with then Lowestoft Council who were able to put us in touch with Dads Sisters, guess what there were six of them all still living, ( What made our Father leave Lowestoft after the war and just forget the six Sisters he had there to this day we our family just cannot imagine ), we traveled to Lowestoft with our Father for what was to be a very tearful and emotional reunion with his Sisters, unfortunately the inquest into why Dad had done such a thing with his Sisters was held behind closed doors so we his family never did find out.
This event only increased my determination and desire to find out more, but I had to wait until 1991 until the time was right and I then had more time were as I could begin researching my Family History.
Having made a start I had very little information were as I could get going, all I had was my Mother Maiden name was Drew, she was born on the Oulton Broad in Lowestoft, and as far as I can remember the only thing mum told us about her family was she had a rich Uncle whom was a Director of the then Bryant & May Match Company, her Mother being a Bryant before marriage to my Grandfather, this I did not know though until I was able to make some research, having made enquirer's I have not been able to substantiate this claim.
We the family after our Fathers revelations suspected Mother not to be the only child as likewise she had not spoke of having any, we could only assume she was, but after lots of research letters to the Lowestoft Journal etc., I was able to establish 2 Sisters and a Brother, then I had a break though one of my letters asking for information to the Lowestoft Journal had been seen by one of my Cousins the son of one of my Mothers Sisters of which at that stage I knew nothing about contacted me and was able to put me in touch with lots and lots of other relatives living in and out of Lowestoft, this again was a total revelation because as it turned out our Mother was one of a family of 14 children, ( WOW how do you take that in, Mother leaving Lowestoft and just forgetting this large family of Sisters, Brothers, Aunts, Uncles, etc. ).
Something clearly had gone seriously wrong, what would make Mother and Father do this thing, to this day were as I have found out a lot of things that were wrong, like for instance Mother had a previous Marriage before meeting my Father and during this time she was living with her previous husband whom was living with his parents the family her Sisters and Brothers more or less disowned her, also the family was quite funny in the sense in that hardly anybody spoke to each other, but these things in themselves to my mind do not add up to leaving Lowestoft and forgetting them, I would dearly love to have some answers but I will keep digging and who knows perhaps one day?
As far as my Father family is concerned likewise when I started researching I knew nothing, not even my Grandfather’s Christen name or for that matter my Grandmothers, were they lived or nothing.
I had not been researching my Father long when I found out he had run away to sea at the age of 15 yrs to be a Fisherman, the reason for this was due to the fact his Mother had committed suicide by Jumping into Lowestoft Inner Harbour with a Cobblers iron tied around her ankles whilst the balance of her mind was disturbed, she had found out her Husband, my Grandfather was having an affair with another women and was planning on leaving home, Dad could not cope with this pain and ran away to sea.
After this episode the family (my Aunt’s,) forbade there children to ever speak again about my Grandfather or even to have any more contact with him, for this reason it took me about three years of researching before I was able to gain any information about him simply because nobody would talk about him.
But then researching is not all about hearing bad news a little while ago my Cousins had a conference even drawing straws to see who was going to tell us a story that we knew a little about and had been asking questions about since our first contact with our Fathers Sisters, our Aunt Eileen told us she had something to tell us but the time was not right, sadly our dear Aunt Eileen died before she was able to tell us what she was wanting to tell us, and so since then we have continued to quiz our Cousins in Lowestoft what it was all about, they just kept telling us they knew nothing, then about 1998 on one of my holidays in Lowestoft they decided we had to know.
What Aunt Eileen had wanted to tell us but was not at the time able was that also our father had had a previous Marriage and in that marriage he had a Son and Daughter both living in Lowestoft, after lots more research I was able to make contact with my half Sister Betty in Lowestoft and arrange to meet her, sadly I was to learn my Half Brother Cliff had recently died, but I feel really very ,very angry not to have been told before because had I then of course I could have met Cliff also to catch up on all we had lost between us not knowing of each others existence.