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My earliest recollection of the war was when I was around 2 1/2 years old. My father was in the Army, and at Christmas time my mother and I travelled down to Northampton where he was stationed and stayed with a family in Northampton.
On Christmas Day and Army Truck was sent to collect us and take us to the barracks. I wanted to sit in the back but wasn't allowed to. At the Christmas Dinner it was normal for the Officers to serve the soldiers and families. My father was a Staff Sergeant so he had to serve the men and us. At the dinner, a soldier passed to me an oblong packet, inside which was brown block. It was chocolate! I had never had chocolate before! I was very wary about putting this in my mouth. My mother told me it was chocolate - it was marvellous!
We should have stayed only a fortnight with this family in Northampton but we ended up staying a month.
Nine months later my sister was born! My father was allowed home for the birth.
My father would come home on leave occasionally and then go back to the barracks. I could not understand why people were upset when my father went away, as to me this was normal. I was lucky my father survived the war.

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