1. Birth & Family Background

2. Early years

3. School days and education

4. My home and neighbourhood

5. Our Town -Fareham

6. Childhood and early teens

7. Late teens and starting work

8. Wedding and early married life

9. Life after the royal navy

10. The children grow up and leave us

11. My Parents

12. Family Fortunes

13. Holidays

14. Birthdays and Christmas and presents I received

15. Family Health

16. Entertainment

17. Annual events

18.  Our Church

19. The cars we owned

20 Homes I have lived in

21. The wider family

22.  Reflections

Chapter 1

Birth and Family Background

In 1939 my Mother miscarried a baby boy, she was later to blame it on having to scrub the stairs where she was living at the time.  If that little boy had lived, it is likely that I would not be here today and there would be no story to tell.  Life, we are told, is full of choices, seemingly not always our own.

I was born on Tuesday 13 August 1940 at Beverley House Wickham, in what was then the county of Southampton, during the battle of Britain as the bombs fell over Portsmouth. On this day apparently, the day that the Germans called Adlertag or “Eagle Day”, waves of strong attacks at different times over a ten hour period came in against Essex, Kent, Sussex and Hampshire. In the afternoon at approximately four o’clock there were two pronged attacks at Middle Wallop airfield and Southampton. The Germans lost 45 planes and the British only 13, and from these six pilots were able to return to their units. (Beverley House, which is part of the Rookesbury Estate, was built for the widow Beverley as a dower house.  Commander N J E W Powlett and his wife Elizabeth, who came from Droxford, took on a two year lease of Beverley in 1937.  The lease was extended, and in September 1944 when it was due to expire, it was again extended for a further seven years, with an opt out clause for either party after three years.  In 1941 Elizabeth Powlett requested that an air raid shelter be built at Beverley, which was granted.  She also asked if the paddock could be dug up and used as a vegetable garden to which the reply was ‘…the paddock was laid at great expense, but in the circumstances, yes it could be used to grow vegetables….’

It is understood that the Naval Maternity Home in Southsea, Bowlands in Osborn Road, was bombed early in the war, which is perhaps why Commander Powlett offered Beverley as a maternity home.  Many of the expectant Naval wives stayed with families in Wickham pending the birth.) I, of course, remember nothing of the Battle of Britain but I am sure it must have been frightening to be in labour at such a time.

  The babies born at Beverley House are known as Beverley Babes according to the Parish Magazine for Wickham.  In 2007 a reunion of Beverley Babes was held during the annual Wickham Fete.  Unfortunately I had no knowledge of this so was not there.   A quote from one person who did attend which she attributed to her Mother was “There were usually about ten babies in the nursery all labelled and swaddled like little sausages in their white cots”.
Beverley House is in Southwick Road, Wickham.  A description of it says it has three dormers a cornice and parapet, Mansard roof tiles and a trellised porch.)

 My parents called me Ann Jennifer, my Mother winning the battle, my father wanted it the other way round.  I looked like my Father but, whereas he had dark hair and brown eyes, I was fair with blue eyes. I weighed in at 6lb 2 oz and I was bald.  When my hair grew it was white blond and curly until I was four years old, then it straightened and went light brown but always remained very thick and strong.  My skin was inclined to freckles and later in my teens was the bane of my existence because it was greasy and spotty. At the time of my birth and until I married we lived at 89 St Michaels Grove, Fareham, except for the two years that we lived in Purbrook when we evacuated during the war.

My Father, Norman Edward Allen, was a Chief Petty Officer, Writer, in the Royal Navy, he had married my Mother, Phyllis Bate, in 1934 at Devonshire Avenue Baptist Church, Portsmouth.  They spent their honeymoon in a hotel in Torquay. He was born in October 1908, the eldest of five boys, although one died in infancy, and she was born in March 1909, the youngest of a family of six girls and three boys, although one of the girls unfortunately died aged 12 years.  They had met when he was eighteen and she was seventeen. My Father told how they used to meet during lunch breaks in the field behind Smith and Vospers, the shop where they both worked.  Norman joined London Road Baptist church in 1918 and Phyllis went to Devonshire Avenue Baptist church.  They were both to remain life- long Baptists.  Phyllis signed the pledge when she was very young and during her whole life she never touched any alcohol.  When they married Norman was living in Nelson Road North End Portsmouth with his parents, and Phyllis lived with her parents in Jessie Road Portsmouth.

Neither of my parents came from particularly well off families, although possibly my Maternal Grandparents had more of a struggle to feed and clothe their family because there were so many children and, although my Grandfather was a Royal Marine, and then worked in the Dockyard, his jobs were not well paid.  My Mother tells how sometimes money for food was scarce and it was not unknown for those who were working to have a whole egg to eat, while she, as a young child,  would be offered the top of her Father’s egg. Unfortunately the lack of money did not seem to preclude my Grandfather having his pint which is one reason my Mother gave for signing the pledge, he was not an alcoholic, but she used to tell me how she would have to return the empties for him when the money given was spent on more beer and not on food.  Both my Bate grandparents were born in Portsmouth, and are buried in Portsmouth in Milton Road cemetery, my Grandmother died in 1945 and my Grandfather in 1948.

My Paternal Grandparents seem to have been slightly better off, my Grandfather Edward Allen was the manager of Smith and Vosper, having been a grocer all his working life.  My Grandmother Eva Allen nee Riggs was always very much involved with London Road Baptist church and she lived her life according to her Christian faith.  She was a genteel lady, living with a friend Caroline Priscott (Edward’s sister Lilian’s sister in Law) all the time that I knew her. My grandfather Allen died in 1939 and I never knew him.  My Grandmother died in 1960, a few months after I got married.

Were the circumstances any different in my Great Grandparents’ lives my parents would probably not have met because they would not have been born in Portsmouth.  My maternal Great Grandfathers, Isaac Bate born 1839 in Staffordshire and Charles Warner born 1842 in Somerset and my Paternal Great Grandfathers, Seth Allen born 1844 in France (British subject), his family came from Derbyshire, and Henry Riggs born 1857 in Dorset all moved to the Portsmouth, Gosport area for various reasons in their twenties and, with the exception of Charles, all married Hampshire girls.  Charles brought his wife, Elizabeth, with him when he moved from Somerset.