Welcome

How the Midhurst Memoirs Project Came about

‘Only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.’  - Deuteronomy 4:9 

My life began in London in 1937.  A year later Dad joined the Balloon Barrage protecting it, leaving Mum and I sticking it out until late 1940 when the Germans started bombing us. Mum rapidly took me to Midhurst; we became evacuees.  I spent my formative years there. 

After the war Mum, Dad and I migrated to Adelaide where I have lived until this time.

Years later our children and grandchildren all said, one by one, “What did you do during the war?’ that led me to also ask that question for I realised I knew very little about it. 

A 2014 invitation, to tell of my childhood to local Midhurst District people, led me to become all too interested in knowing what went on behind my memories of the War.  

My childhood experience is the story-line. What was also needed was the back-story. At first, it seemed a small book-full was all that could be written. As my research developed it became clear that numerous, really interesting, things went on in the Midhurst District.

Visits to Midhurst in 2014, 2015 led to the project being shaped as four books. Book 1 was published in 2018. Book 2 

came out in August 2020.

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This project’s aim is to make the history available to all who wonder what happened to shake the world so massively in the 1939-1945 years; and to record the back-story of the Midhurst District over the duration.