NextBackI was born at Headless Cross, and spent a very happy childhood with my parents and younger sister where we lived opposite the playing field in Birchfield Road.
My mother came from a family who had experienced a very tragic history involving losing, as a result of a combination of the first world war and TB, not only her father but also a sister and three of her brothers out of a total of eight children.
On leaving St Luke’s School at the age of fourteen my father was most anxious for me to have a job in the fresh air and to learn a skilled trade, I did not realize the significance of this at the time, but many years later was told my mum was on the TB register when I was a baby.
My ambition was to enter the entertainment business, because I had been stage struck from an early age, my second wish, was for later to join the police force, but as my dad sensibly pointed out it was better to learn a skilled trade first as it was always something to fall back on.
