Voice
of the Villages
A war story
I was ‘thought of’ in Folkestone and born in Leamington Spa in 1940 (work it out!)
In Folkestone Daddy was a skilled cabinet maker, and was told he was needed to help build aeroplanes for the war effort in Coventry; he really wanted to join The Royal Navy but they didn’t give him the choice. So in June 1940 the family moved to 110 Radford Road, Leamington Spa to the house where I have now lived for 83 years!
Our wonderful neighbours in Folkestone, the Beers, moved into 110 with us, because Uncle Beer was also a skilled cabinet maker. We lived amicably together throughout the war years. The Beers had Marian and Mum and Dad had Julie.
When Mum was 8 months pregnant with me, her sister Win was sadly killed in Hastings in September 1940. In October the midwife realized that I had stopped growing, and on a cold night in October Daddy pushed heavily-pregnant Mum to the Warnford Hospital just down the road in a wheelbarrow – it was in the blackout in wartime! Consequently I was a very tiny baby and was put into the only incubator in the Hospital, and called Wendy Wiffles!
After the war the Beers moved to Lillington. Auntie Beer had Kenny, and Mummy had baby Margaret – we remained firm friends for life.
Wendy Green
