Page 26 - Colin Wheeler's Memories

Redditch Heritage My Palace Theatre and other Memories

I 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.

Page: 26 © Redditch Heritage 2018