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It is just after World War One, that dreadful and bloody conflict which was meant to be the war to end all wars. Brian Minchin (born 1912) continues his memoirs. (His previous reminiscences can be seen under Woking in the Surrey section of this website.)
'It is perhaps worth mentioning that 24 Claverdale Road where we were still living with my parents, later became a West Indian Community which my sister actually took the trouble to go and visit not so many years ago. She wanted to speak to the people but she met only a man in the house and she didn't like to approach him. She noted that the place was still very well kept and they seemed a very nice family of blacks living there.
I remember playing in the garden. Two things happened: firstly I sat on the edge of a tin bath we had back in Claverdale Road, with my other hand behind me on the other side to keep it balanced. I rather carelessly and foolishly took my hand away and of course the other side of the bath came up and hit me on the head causing no serious damage but I have still got a scar there on which the hair doesn't grow. Every time I have a close haircut people say 'Oh that Barber has taken a bit out of your scalp.'
The other thing was I was pretending to be a pussycat, crawling round in the garden, managed to get a thorn in my knee, and as far as I can recollect that thorn has never come out -- you can still see a mark, a tiny red mark, which has never caused me any difficulty. I suppose it must have dissolved but just left the mark after all those years!
Then I had a holiday at one time with my uncle who had a house at Aldeburgh in Suffolk, which is a great yachting centre. It was deployed also to become a music centre for Benjamin Britten and the music devotees didn't always get on well with the yachting community but that was much later.
I was there actually at the celebration of the signing of the City of Versailles Treaty in Paris in 1919 and there were formal celebrations but not on such a grand scale compared with the Armistice Day ones which were terrific. The Peace Day was rather a flop because they couldn't keep up with the relevance of it. A greatly significant part of the treaty of Versailles was when the young British representative, John Maynard Canes, walked out because he said it would create an impossible situation which would lead to impoverishment and probably ultimately to War, which is exactly what it did do.
Sometimes the local children would take a little walk to Bodwell Park, a very nice Park where we used to play and run about. I think I actually celebrated one of my birthdays with a party in the Park.'
The following section of Brian Minchin's memories is under Streatham Hill in the London section of this website.
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