About the contributor

I was a small boy when WW2 was on. We(my mum and my sister,Tess)lived at various addresses, including Stratford-upon-Avon( with the lovely Mrs Quigley),and finally in Bootle,close to the docks there.
My dad went into the Royal Engineers in 1938, and we didn't see very much of him. In 1940, he was rescued at Dunkirk. My mum did war work,first,at the ROF in Long Lane,and then at the Jacob's biscuit factory, further down the road. We were never evacuated(Later,Mum told us thay she couldn't bear to be parted from us!)
My dad had three brothers, Jim,Jack,and Chris. Uncle Jim was in the !st Batt, The Irish Guards, and he saw a lot of fighting in Norway, North Africa, and then all the way into Germany in 1944/5. Chris was in the Liverpool Scottish, and saw action in Europe, post D-day. Jack was in the Merchant Navy. A cousin of my dad's,John Leonard Lawler,was KIA in 1942,when the Stirling bomber he was a crew member of, was shot down over Germany. He is buried in the war cemetery,Uden, Germany. He was only 21 years of age! My Aunt Annie's husband,James Armstrong,was in the Green Howards. His regiment did a lot of fighting too! I have his service record. He was in the army for many years and he served all over the world,took part in the D-Day landings,and the long final push right into the heart of Germany.
We all survived the war. My dad came home for good in 1946, and our carefree days with mum, finally came to an end. Ironic?
I attended St James's School,where one of the masters was Ann Robinson's father. I failed my 11 plus (You are the missing link-Goodbye!),but much later gained a 2.1 from Manchester, and a MA from Liverpool. The 11-plus made no provision for late developers, and, besides, we had just been through the most traumatic period in our lives ... c'est la vie ... I suppose!