Time in Hospital

Ronald Leedham: Home

Ronald Leedham was born in 1929 in India. His family moved back to England in 1931after Ronald contracted Polio. Ronald spent some years in Hospital as a young child after contracting Diptheria. When he was six he returned home to Catford for a short while to live with his father, eventually ending up living in ‘homes for crippled children’ run by the Shaftesbury Society, until he was sixteen.

More from
Ronald Leedham

Here Ronald talks about his time in hospital as a young child.

  • Ronald Leedham
  • Ronald Leedham
https://howwasschool.allfie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/home.mp3

Transcript

The doctor came around one day, I’ll always remember it, the doctor came round one day and, I don’t know, I’d heard this word home. I didn’t know what home was, didn’t mean a thing to me at all, but I’d heard this word home from the nurses’ conversations and the other children talking about home and this, that and the other, and they wanted to go home. I didn’t know what it meant, wanting to go home. I’d no conception what home life was meant at all at that time. And I remember saying to the doctor, I can remember saying to him ‘Can I go home?’ And he said ‘We’ll think about that,’ and suddenly I was sent home.

Explore more

Explore stories by theme or view the timeline of significant events in education for disabled people

A selection of other stories...