I suppose I have always been fascinated by uniforms. I title this section as I was a member of the Women's Royal Army Corps and now in the autumn of my years I am a member of The King's Army which is part of the English Civil War Society.
Let me start at the beggining. I was born during the war years in Liverpool. My birth mother Annie Russell named me Patricia Jean. Apparently these were the names of two nurses on the maternity ward in the hospital -126 Smithdown Road, Liverpool. Unfortunately Annie was not able to keep me. For what reason I do not know as yet but as I am currently trying to find out I hope to be able one day to update this bit,
At the tender age of 3 or 4 months I was taken into the tender care of Eleanor McGurn. She had been widowed only 2 days after I was born yet at the age of 58 she took me on. All of her own siblings except for a 15 yr old daughter where serving in various theatres of the war. Eleanor officially adopted me in November 1943 when I was just 14 months old. One odd thing though. She kept my original names. Most people when they adopt change the baby's name. Although according to a couple of family members my birth mother used to visit to see how I was presumably.
All I can remember of those early years is the nice tasting orange juice children had plus a big green pedigree pram. I do remember once pushing the pram around the square that was in front of our house in Huyton and boucing the wheels. I forgot to let go and went up in the air and what goes up must come down. I landed on my head.
After the war ended the family returned. Roy and Dennis returned from the Army, Dorothy who had been working for the NAAFI came home as did Joyce and Amy. Joyce got married to a Londoner and left for the capital to live. Kathleen, who was the youngest had joined the Womens Land Army and when she returned she left again to go to Germany where she was during the Berlin Airlift. I think she had also joined the NAAFI during this time.
In 1950 the Korean War started and Dennis was called up. Mother and I went to Lime St station to see him off. Apparently I kicked up a fuss and wanted to go with him and all the other soldiers. I made my mind up then that when I was old enough I would join the Army.
Living with a lot of grown ups meant that as the youngest I had to do lots of chores. One of them was scrubbing the scullery floor once a week. Oh how I hated that job. To get through it I used to imagine I was somewhere else. Radio was our main entertainment and I looked forward to Childrens Hour. One of my favourite programmes was "Jennings" He was a boy at boarding school and used to have some great adventure with his friends. I used to imagine I also went to boarding school and made up my own adventures. As I got older and learnt all about other countries in geography my attention was turned to a place that I have always wanted to go to. I decided the only way to get there was to join the Australian Army. I suppose it was just my way of trying to get through my chores before being allowed ot to play.
My school life started off with a year at Longview Infants School. The only recollections of that school was that the teacher's always insisted on calling me Patricia whereas at home it was Jean. I do wonder if this was the reason I left that school to attend Park View Primary. Funny how odd things crop up in your mind. There was one time that a friend, Pamela Howarth, and myself decided to have a 'pretend' fight. Trouble was is erupted into a real fight. We soon became friends again after that but no more 'fights'. All too soon it was off to Senior School
This was to be Huyton Secondary Modern in Rupert Road. Not sure why I didn't end up at Huyton Hey which was in Seel Road. There was quite a bit of rivalry between these two schools. I can only think I was sent to Rupert Road as Kathleen had been to that school. In fact one of the teachers who had been called Miss Sanders and was now Mrs Saunders remembered teaching outr Kathleen and soon made sure I knew it. I had started my last years of school life wearing a black skirt and blue shirt. I was pulled out in front of the class to show all the rest how one should dress. The school had no official uniform then and when it came in I was still the odd one out. The family couldn't afford the uniform so I was sent off to school in a dress. However a couple of my friends helped out in that area and I would start off to school early and call at my friend Jean Brown's house in Gentwood Rd and change into uniform.
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