Started 08/08/2013 Chapter 10, Darwen until 1947 ...continued Time to take stock; 1947 is a real cut-off year in many ways. Changing school, no longer being an only child, but also in many ways, leaving Darwen. At Lancaster, LRGS, Lancaster Royal Grammar School, the terms were roughly 14 weeks (Michaelmas), 11 weeks (Lent) and 14 … Continue reading Tom Greenwood Memoirs Chapter 10 – Darwen until 1947 – continued →

Started 29 July 2013 I haven't said anything about the boys' playground yet. The girls' and infants' school yard had brown flagstones I seem to remember (ideal for hop-scotch), whilst the boys' was grey tarmac. There would have been about a hundred boys, (five classes, 20 boys per class) aged from seven to eleven playing … Continue reading Tom Greenwood Memoirs Chapter 9 – Hollins Grove Council School Part 2 1944 – 1947 →

Started 24 July 2013 So let's bite the bullet and start on Tom Greenwood's school days, in fact Tommy Grunwald's, pronounced the English way, no umlaut; that was my name all the way through Hollins Grove. After my preliminary experiences of school at St Cuthbert's (Tommy's not feeling very well today!) and Miss Regan's, I … Continue reading Tom Greenwood Memoirs Chapter 8 – Primary School 1941 – 1947 Hollins Grove Council School →

Started 20 July 2013 Dad was always pretty vague about his war, apart from a few often repeated yarns, - the occupation of the brewery in Pilsen, etc – and reading up what I can find about the Czech Armoured Brigade on the internet would explain why. It seems that they (4000 officers and men) … Continue reading Tom Greenwood Memoirs Chapter 7 ctd – Dad’s War – Active Service →

Started 19 July 2013 When I come to think of it, I don't remember much about Dad's war. (I think the correct thing is to write “my dad” with a small d for dad, but Dad with a capital D when I write e.g. …  about Dad's war … as above, but please correct me … Continue reading Tom Greenwood Memoirs – Chapter 6 – My Dad’s War →

The war certainly was very prominent in everybody's life; in the first years, a great fear of invasion, and when that receded, there were still the black-out and the air raids, it dominated the news (daily and weekly newspapers, magazines and the newsreels in the cinemas, the games we played, the adventure books we read, … Continue reading Tom Greenwood Memoirs – Chapter 5 – Let’s call it the war years, so to 1945, part I →

Started 01/01/2013 Chapter 4, Darwen 1938-1940 When we arrived in Darwen, we lived, to start with, in a hotel, the High Lawn Hotel on Blackburn Road, the main road from Darwen to Blackburn perhaps ¾ mile from the town centre. It was owned by a couple called Baines, who also owned a café, the Criterion … Continue reading Tom Greenwood Memoirs Chapter 4 – Darwen 1938-1940 →

2012-11-01 Tom memoirs Part III, 1936 up to 1945, the end of the war So here I am, born 16 September 1936, at, I think around 9.30 a.m., in a maternity clinic in Vienna. I have no information about how my Mum's pregnancy went, but I don't think anything dramatic happened. When I was just … Continue reading Tom Greenwood Memoirs – Chapter Three – Early years 1936 – 1945, the end of the war →

Started 19 June 2012 Tom Memoirs Part II My parents up to 1938 So, ladies first; what can I tell you about my mother and her life in Austria? And again the answer is, surprisingly, at least for me, little. According to her passport, she was born in Moedling, a town not far from Vienna … Continue reading Tom Greenwood Memoirs – Chapter Two – My parents in Austria →