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Early Life
Ronald Leedham: Suitcases
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
- Greyness
- The Glow over London
- Buzz Bombs and Doodlebugs
- Cricket at Sevenoaks
- Parlour Songs
- Certificates
- Visiting every six weeks
- Mum
- Shut Away and Tipped Out
- Oliver Twist
- Awful Sundays
- ‘Mummy coming’
- Difficult subject
- Visits
- Incendiaries in the park
- A Miserable Time
- Home
- Sheltering in the Church
- War starts
- Lead Soldiers
- Shelter
- I Knew Nothing About Life
- Boys and girls together
- No talking
- The Walk to Church on Sunday
- Oliver Twist and donk
- Geography
- Dogfight
- Beatings
- Explosives
- Shame
Here Ronald remembers his stepmother leaving.
https://howwasschool.allfie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/suitcases.mp3
Transcript
But I can’t remember anything – I know that the marriage failed, the old man’s marriage failed, and I can remember the stepmother’s suitcases in the hall one day. And, she evidently left that day. I think the old man was expecting it. And from there I got – obviously he couldn’t cope. He had to go to work, you know, and I ended up – he introduced me to The Shaftesbury Society and that’s how I ended up in their 'homes for crippled children', so called.Explore more
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